Presenting a double bill of innovative contemporary dance, Dance Consortium brought Canadian company Ballet BC to the Festival Theatre’s stage. Playing with both the dark and light, fluidity and harshness, humour and sadness, Ballet BC provides us with an intentional and diverse vision of creation that stretches the boundaries of contemporary dance. It is clear that choreographers Crystal Pite and Johan Inger take great care with their work, with even the slightest movement bringing impact and meaning to the respective pieces – each joint, limb, and muscle being utilised in unique and unusual ways.
Act one featured the work of Crystal Pite with their piece entitled Frontier. Frontier explored the relationship between the self and the shadow with dancers dressed entirely in black, contrasting with those in beige. Each aspect of production during this dance was cohesive and well integrated – Tom Visser’s lighting design being one of these key elements. The soft lighting allowed for the shadow dancers to creep in and out of view seamlessly, playing with the idea of the unknown – all we were allowed was a dim view of centre stage in which the dancers struggled against the darkness. The partner-work was cleverly done, with the shadow and the self being attached as one through mirroring and connection. We saw the unrelenting struggle as the light dancers fought against the shadow dancers – the push and pull against the temptation of the dark. Pite’s choreography had such a flow to it, giving the impression that the dancers were malleable – truly personifying the intangible nature of the dark. The fluidity of the dancers was unreal, moving with an impossible grace and prowess, working in complete unity with one another.
The second piece from Ballet BC was Passing by Johan Inger. This contrasted significantly with Frontier, having a lighter feel to it – the dancers being dressed colourfully and humour being used more frequently. The opening imagery of this dance was beautiful, with two dancers sprinkling out a trail of confetti in parallel. Just as we think the two lines will connect, they miss each other ever so slightly. This set up the piece thematically in such a strong and expressive way with such simple execution, displaying the idea of fate and the consequences our decisions have on the trajectory of our lives. With simulations of sex, birth, and death this was an evocative piece which looked at the vulnerability and rawness of the human experience. Using canon and sequence to connect the dancers, they moved as one, utilising the space of the stage to display the journey of life, making the confetti fly as they moved. In this piece, the dancers were allowed to express with sound as well as with movement, with two of the dancers singing a ghostly refrain, laughter and crying, and of course the screams of a birthing mother. All of this noise created a more explicit sense of expression – we were allowed to laugh along with and relate to the dancers as humans rather than as performers. Both pieces brought a very different mood to the show, but both certainly were developed with every minute detail in mind, and the dancers managed to effortlessly communicate these details to us with specificity and skill. To end the show the dancers performed while confetti slowly rained down on them – I would love to see the patterns left by the confetti on the floor – even that displays this idea of fate. I’m sure it never lands in the same place twice.
Reviewer: Jessie Martin
Reviewed: 23rd May 2025
North West End UK Rating: