Birmingham Old Rep
January 31, 2017
Phil Preece
Billed as a dance-digital production, at first sight, Scattered is most strongly characterised by its powerfully imaginative use of technology.
A curved white breaking-wave backdrop seems initially to be the minimalist set of all time but in fact proves to be an interactive digital screen providing powerful visual content that creates a subtly complex context for the work in question. It’s a mesmerising design device producing endless optical illusion that allows its performers an unusual variety of subtly-evoked contexts in which to pursue the works’ journey.
Seven superbly athletic dancers unceasingly climb, fall, twist and turn their way through the work as they explore the myriad opportunities offered by the characteristics of water in a series of powerfully beautiful set pieces including a mesmerising undersea scene. Oh, and I nearly forgot to say, this is a joyous celebration of movement itself, and often very funny.
Photo Chris Nash
The piece is given extra structure by the movement of the seasons allowing scope for exploration of the planet’s climatic range from the sun-drenched tropical oceans to the inhospitable challenges of the frozen poles.
One surprising side-effect of the energy of this piece is that the running, leaping and climbing is matched equally by its opposite as the powerfully elastic bodies plunge, fall, tumble and rebound endlessly, emphasising the inevitably of gravity. These are not the hovering, weightless rises, effortless soaring leaps and powder-soft landings of classical ballet, nor does it for long evoke the weightlessness of water. Rather this is hard, hot life, beautifully and viscerally bouncing and rebounding with the insistence of earth’s gravity always pulling it back to itself.
An exciting evening from Motionhouse whose work I shall definitely run to see in the future.
Scattered continues on tour. Visit www.motionhouse.co.uk for dates and venues.