Mayflower Studios, Southampton
May 29, 2021
The fast-rising choreographer Micaela Taylor, founder and Artistic Director of Los Angeles-based TL Collective, is clearly a talent to be watched. Inspired by the place we’ve all spent a great deal of time at this past year, her Home, a new commission for Rambert2 that opens the company’s new double bill is a juicy piece of dance theatre that grabs you from its opening dark tableau to its unresolved end.
During lockdown stays at home, there is much time to think, the mind working overtime, especially for those on their own for days on end. The programme note gives little away but while Home may not be a dream, as we are told at one point, it certainly feels like that place where dark illusion and reality meet, constantly stepping one side of that line and then the other. Perhaps it’s more than anything, a glimpse into the inner mind.
Photo Deborah Jaffe
That opening tableau sees Seren Williams in maroon and red, standing in front of an ensemble of browns and greys: a sea of faces and hands, thoughts perhaps, that are waiting to pounce on their victim and set to work.
“Home. Where is it?” intones a voice. And we are undoubtedly at home, in a physical sense at least. A carpeted lounge, a standard lamp (neatly balanced by another hanging upside down as a ceiling light), a doorway, a window.
Thereon, and while undoubtedly dance rather than drama, Taylor mines her lead’s psychological states and creates atmosphere in much the same way the as do Crystal Pite and Jonathan Young in their noted collaborations. The movement is stylised with influences from hip hop, contemporary and classical ballet. There are quirky exaggerated facial expressions and body language. Home feels very real, very alive. In its own way, it’s also strangely beautiful.
At the centre of everything, Williams evokes a powerful empathy. He solo moments suggest a conversation with herself. Taylor assembles and disassembles structure with ease. Williams sometimes dances with the ensemble in together moments express an uneasy security. Time and again, they fall apart as turmoil returns, however. It’s like the mind is constantly drifting erratically from one thought to the next, some good, some not so good. Several times too, she is surrounded by the ensemble like a hunted animal might be surrounded by a pack of preying others.
Greater peace and security comes in duets with Jonathan Wade, who emerges from the group. A fine dancer, his solo choreography includes many tumbles and rolls, all done with incredible lightness. But there’s strength too, as shown in two beautifully held overhead lifts towards the end.
Micaela Taylor might be a new choreographer to me, but Home left me wanting to see more.
Photo Deborah Jaffe
Danced to an increasingly loud, repetitive, thumping, techno score by Ori Lichtik, Sharon Eyal’s challenging Killer Pig (here seen with eight dancers) is an endurance test. In skimpy, flesh-coloured underwear, the dancers are in perpetual motion, stalking the stage on tiptoe with knees bent (imagine wobbling around in a pair of serious stilettos) as if spaced out in a club.
Eyal’s unashamedly brazen and uncompromising choreography emphasises shoulders, elbows and hips, with plenty of pelvic-led manoeuvres thrown in for good measure. Feet stomp, chests thump. It’s tribal, sometimes near trance-like. Most interesting are those moments when Eyal takes traditional ballet steps and presents them in her own way, however. I’m sure even I saw a nod to Swan Lake in there.
Although very much dance that finds much strength in its ensemble work, the highlights comes in solos that break out, especially those by Comfort Kondehson, a long-limbed preying mantis of a dancer who imbues the often broken and angular choreography with a powerful grace.
Killer Pig is killer choreography. The whole cast is pretty much on stage throughout. By the end, sweat is pouring off everyone. The continue to dance as the curtain falls. They do the work proud. However, for all their effort, breathlessness and energy, I found the forty-five minutes watching an endurance test for me too. Oh for the delicious depth of Home, which I could have quite happily watched again straight away.
Rambert2 continues on tour. Visit www.rambert.org.uk for dates and venues.