The Place, London
November 14, 2025
ACE Dance and Music have become noted over the past twenty years for innovative productions that draw on the African diaspora but with a very contemporary outlook. Continuing in that vein is the company’s latest double-bill, TWAWSI, which comprises Echoes of Dust by Serge Amié Sayouba, and Letlalo (Skin) by Vincent Mantsoe, two highly regarded choreographers who have presented work in theatres and at festivals throughout Europe and Africa for many years.
The seven ACE dancers are outstanding in both works. Their finesse, precision, interpretation, technique, and sheer danceability, are amongst the best I have seen for a long time. Both works are very much ensemble pieces, and what makes the dancers even more remarkable is that they are all excellent, and all dancing with an energy and intensity that leaves you breathless just watching them.
Echoes of Dust, my preferred piece of the two, tells a story of disaster: war and utter devastation, people’s lives destroyed, everything known torn apart. Sayouba’s choreography is vivid, immediate, visceral and raw; and innovative. He choreographs emotions into the movement in a way that is quite unique. They hit you with every move the dancers make.
Through thirty minutes of bringing people together, only to be ripped apart again, Sayouba draws the audience into this hell, such that they experience it with the dancers. It is a remarkable piece.
The set by Claire Witcombe is exactly right, grey blocks of nothingness that serve to enhance the utter despair.
Letlalo is as uplifting as Echoes is despairing. Mantsoe’s choreography is interesting and often creative. The work certainly delivers on its promise of evoking power, unity, and serenity.
The dancers move as individuals within the ensemble, which gives the sense of a dance presentation. But with no story or sense of narrative, as enjoyable as the dance is, it started to feel a little repetitive. Perhaps it has something to do with following Echoes, but it lacked punch. Maybe programming them the other way round would be better.
Witcombe’s backdrop imagery for Letlalo is a craggy wall, which was very effective but underused. James MacKenzie’s lighting enhanced both pieces, but again more could have been done to support the embedded themes in the second.
But, all in all, a most enjoyable evening of dance from a remarkable company.