Sadler’s Wells, London
February 9, 2017
Maggie Foyer
Mascuro Fogo is Pina Bausch sunny side up. This is not the dark and troubled choreographer leaving more questions than giving answers, but a light hearted snapshot of that most romantic of cities, Lisbon. The work is infused with sensual warmth, the heady perfume of flowers and all washed by the sea. However, this is still Tanztheater Wuppertal and the arrows of Cupid are never without their barbs to inject razor-sharp humour.
The company retains the spirit of Bausch and many of the long-time members are still with the company and what theatrical treasures they are! The performers come in many sizes and shapes but each one is a consummate dance actor. Bausch was never one for a unisex look. Her female dancers stride across the stage on high heels, hair billowing and flowing silk dresses just a millimetre away from exposing bosoms and they are always on top. Hoisted aloft, swimming in a plastic bubble, sighing into a microphone, or getting their balloons popped these women are never cowed. They accept the incongruity of their situation with a wry smile constantly hovering round their lips. And the assertiveness does not diminish with the years, as the women of a certain age still eye the young men (both onstage and in the audience) with keen and experienced eyes.
Photo Jochen Viehoff
Masurca Fogo is fast paced and action packed. The young men especially, display their dance skills in a variety of solos in many styles and indulge in high energy group horseplay in throwing and catching sequences that repeat at intervals. The video projections are brilliantly conceived and used judiciously, particularly the final scene as the swelling sea seems to breathe with the dancers and the waves break over the stage, wavelets creeping right to the edge.
Pina Bausch has a unique eye for structuring her disparate scraps of humanity. With the skill of a pointillist painter she sets the seemingly random dots into an order that means little viewed in isolation, but step back to see the full picture and the relevance of her art is there in all its glory.