Choreographers: Trisha Brown and Noé Soulier
Within the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels festival currently playing across London, Noé Soulier joins the Trisha Brown Dance Company for a special commission, In the Fall, created in 2023 that utilises many of the characteristics of Brown’s original work, pushing the physicality of the dancers in exploration of stamina, strength and core muscular control. A 30-minute piece about individuality, community and connection, it resonates with Trisha Brown’s own piece Working Title from 1985, performed as part of a double bill by the same group of dancers.
There is a leisureliness to Soulier’s shaping and moulding of dancer forms that is engrossing and remarkably relaxing to watch as first pairs, then trios, then all eight performers appear on stage in a series of choreographed scrunches and stretches. Soulier makes different choices for each individual while also offering periodic mirroring which is especially effective in the ensemble moments where some dancers share movement and others have separate, tailored segments. They rarely touch except in an intimate opening scene as one extension creates the momentum and purpose for another limb to move, even if it belongs to another person, yet the patterns and shapes that Soulier creates are challenging for the dancers if soothing for the viewer.
This is enhanced by some fascinating soundscaping and visual choices. Eschewing traditional music, Florian Hecker offers up an aural scheme that sounds like cicadas and traffic, later the clanking of bells and metal which give In the Fall an urban feel. However visually, it is in another space entirely, the ensemble dressed by Kaye Voyce in three primary colours that glow on the stage when the full company appear together. This combination of unusual staging choices links through to Brown’s own piece appearing after the interval with Peter Zummo’s music creating tinkly ricochets across multiple tracks contrasting again with Elizabeth Cannon’s loose, 60s-style tunics and trousers.
Working Title then becomes an echo of Soulier’s contemporary piece, the inspiration which also creates a feeling of contemplation for the viewer as the eight dancers create an effortless flow over 25 minutes. Brown works the ensemble pretty hard though, the constancy of the piece and the expectations it places on the dancers with stretches and continual movement are evident, but the impression is of free and casual decisions, a hippy festival of connection between the groups that Brown creates.
There is darkness here too and moments of direct collision; Brown allowing her performers to physically connect, to lift and propel movement from one another gives this piece a lightness that contrasts with Soulier’s more meditative isolations. This opening night of the Dance Reflections festival offers a connected double bill that makes significant demands of its dancers.
Runs until 13 March 2025
