Choreographer: Ebony Rose Dark
Out There, In Here is Ebony Rose Dark’s first full-length performance, staged in the round at The Place and exploring the meaning of being seen and not seen, seeing and not seeing. An abstract 55-minute piece that prioritises visual presentation and accessibility over particular messaging or narrative architecture, Dark’s show tries to use their experience and perspective to foreground the loss of sight and sound but also to just be open to the feeling of the space, a semi-improvised approach that gives Dark the opportunity to play.
And Out There, In Here begins well with a Janus-like figure emerging from the shadows draped in layers of fabric and topped with a shimmering gold cape. The audience’s inability to see Dark’s face or form is deliberately sinister with the presence of masks on the front and back of their head purposefully establishing the genderless nature of the body which contorts and moves freely. The visual substance is enhanced here by the reflective layers of material that morph as Dark changes position, height and shape, catching the light in interesting ways.
This impression of movement and the combination of glittery cloth with light also lies behind the final section of this performance as the visually impaired Dark, now in drag (a costume designed by Ryan Dawson Laight) unfurls large wings that they flutter and swoop in time with the music, enjoying both the sensation and alterations in pace as well as the visual impact that this creates while lip syncing and using audio description as a poetic underlay.
Where the show struggles is in structuring all of these creative ideas and various channels into a series of particular messages or consistent reflections on the topic of seeing and being seen. Much of Out There, In Here feels improvised, every movement is described by Dark as it is happening and supported by a BSL interpreter. But this decision to perform and describe simultaneously partially restricts Dark from giving themselves over fully to dance as the primary artform or in recognising and utilising the additional language that it offers to visually express ideas that words cannot fully describe.
The outcome is Out There, In Here feels more like a mindfulness session or a workshop than a performance with Dark’s soft, descriptive tones almost suggesting the audience could move their body in the same way or, in the extended piece about light on an empty stage, to lean into the meditative qualities that Dark’s narration offers. Here, messages also get a little scrambled including a wish that people in the streets would remove their headphones and put their smartphones away as well as an extended monologue about Christmastime in a café with some nice cake, a lovely memory but not quite gelling with the other material as part of a coherent whole.
Out There, In Here’s strengths are the freedom of unchoreographed movement and the striking image that can be created with light and fabric, but in developing their show, Dark needs to be clearer on what they want it to say and then – whether it is dance, audio description, memory, art installation, visual storytelling, BSL – decide how they want to communicate it.
Reviewed on 10 September 2024
The Reviews Hub Score
Multi-lingual freedom
