The Place, London
March 21, 2026
Verve, the graduate company of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance has been presenting work for over twenty years, always to critical acclaim. This year’s offering, a triple-bill of great quality, is no exception.
In BodyBe, Andrea Costanzo Martini, who started out as a dancer with companies such as Batsheva and Cullberg, blends physical intensity with humour as he investigates the relationship between audience and performer. His choreography is intelligent, inventive, and full of challenges, all of which the dancers meet with relish, and an expertise that is surprisingly mature for graduate students yet to begin their professional careers. BodyBe is powerful, playful, and always engaging, if perhaps just a wee bit overlong.
Photo Elly Welford
British Caribbean, UK-based independent choreographer Alethia Antonia’s We Question. We Try., explores questions of identity, although this is not clear in the way the work unfolds. The piece is fluid, original and once again very engaging, however. The dancers are in constant motion, coming together and moving alone. While there is repetition, the work never feels repetitive, a choreographic achievement that Antonia should be lauded for.
Photo Elly Welford
Best known of the three choreographers is undoubtedly Oona Doherty, whose Hope Hunt, now celebrating its tenth anniversary, completed the evening. In it, Doherty exposes male ‘peacocking’ behaviour, which is held-up to the light, and reimagined as a need for acceptance and love. The piece is something of a modern classic, and the dancers did it full justice.
Photo Elly Welford
I have just one gripe from the evening. As so often, the lighting designers created poorly lit performances. In some cases, it was quite hard to see the dancers, especially when haze was also introduced. And it is the dancers that the audience come to see. Lighting should add atmosphere certainly, but not at the expense of clarity.
Congratulations go to NSCD, the choreographers, and of course the Verve dancers, for an excellent evening of dance. It really was a superb evening, one that showed, once again, that the school is still at the top of the dance training tree, producing performers of excellence, professionally ready, technically advanced and able to be risk-takers on stage.