Greenside @ Royal Terrace, Edinburgh
August 15, 2018
★★★
David Mead
New home (she’s recently relocated to Aberdeen) and new dancers but one thing doesn’t change with Éowyn Emerald and Dancers: a belief in pure, unadulterated modern dance that’s all about movement and music that, while not quite and endangered species on the Fringe, isn’t always that easy to spot.
This year’s programme features eight short pieces in the space of fifty minutes. Emerald’s titles are as grammatically odd as her dance is conventional, mostly straight out of the American modern dance classroom textbook. The opening made {in} features a nice sense of freedom, at least as much as is possible on the relatively small stage, with lots of eye contact being made and folding in and out of one another. As with most of the pieces, duets come and go easily.
Next, aka: We. Together. Stand initially features the increasingly common use of torches, which doesn’t work particularly well in this space, before changing tack completely. The first piece that seems to have much emotional meaning is p|L ies (see what I mean about titles?), which appears to be about a relationship breaking down.
It’s all very pleasant but as works come and go, you start to feel like you’ve seen things before. There’s also very little variation in movement quality. Choreographically, the brief nature of the works means that very little gets explored to the depth it could have been, and probably should have been.
Emerald also seems to like to get everyone on stage, however short the piece. Chicken Keys & Bat Caves starts with one of the more interesting duets, but it’s then spoiled by the appearance of the other two dancers, who simply serve to distract from the original couple. Not for the only time in the show, a case of less would have been so much more. Besides being clearly confined by the space, the dance also suffers from one of the noisiest floors I’ve ever heard. Every roll or drop sounded like a thunder crash, which rather negated the largely intended lightness.
Best comes towards the end, in work developed as a response to gun violence in America. Sudden drops to the floor are suggestive of people being shot. The closing duet especially is tense and full of emotion, and build beautifully with the music, although again, another couple dilutes things a little.
Éowyn Emerald and her company clearly work well together, the dancers having a good unity of style. I just wanted more choreographically, and enough space to let them fully express themselves and the dance breathe to the extend it deserves.
Éowyn Emerald and Dancers runs at Greenside @ Royal Terrace to August 25. Click here for tickets and details.