FESTIVAL DANCE | Reviews
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MY LAND Ballet meets the circus in this mesmerising show ●●●●●
Using the word ‘circus’ might give the wrong idea about this impressive show from Hungarian company Recirquel, featuring some pretty outstanding Ukrainian talents. Yes, there are acrobatics, jugglers and gymnasts, but it’s circus staged in a braver, more minimal and modern way, allowing each act time and space to show off some fairly mind-bending skills. There’s a circus saying, that the less talent you have, the
more props you need. And whether that’s true or not, there are no motorbikes, safety nets or hula-hooping girls here, just a very stripped-back set covered in sand, and seven artists in a nude-coloured wardrobe of hessian monks’ hoods and zero VPL underpants. It’s nothing like the show Recirquel brought to the Fringe last year, Paris de Nuit, a saucy cabaret set in the 1930s with lots of Bob Fosse-style dance moves and athletic high kicks in fishnets.
Andrii Spatar opens My Land with a balletic display of soft
power, serenely shifting his weight from one hand to another, making mesmerising curves and lines with his taut torso in the air. Twin brothers Andrii and Mykola Pysiura draw gasps from the crowd as one balances gracefully on the other’s head and stoic contortionist Roman Khafizov doesn’t flinch as serene gymnast Yevheniia Obolonina does a feather-light routine on his upturned solar plexus, effortlessly dovetailing their elastic limbs around one another. The finale involves some athletic partnering with a ladder from
Sergii Materynskyi in time with the music; part of a specially created, dramatic score of strings and drumming that involved getting monks in a remote Ukrainian village to record their chanting just for the show. Some simple magic with mirrors and old-fashioned suspense and timing puts the cherry on the cake. (Claire Sawers) ■ Assembly Roxy, until 26 Aug (not 20), 8.10pm, £12–£14 (£11–£13).
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8 SONGS Hugely entertaining rock’n’roll juggling ●●●●●
THE SAUNA Slow-burner fails to heat up the blood ●●●●● BON 4 BON Beautiful evocation of brotherly love ●●●●●
Master jugglers Gandini choreograph a riotous romp through eight great rock’n’roll songs, skilfully blending dance and juggling tricks to sublime effect. The joyous harmonies of the Beach Boy’s ‘Good
Vibrations’ kicks things off. These six are a tight ensemble, and they’d have to be – there’s very little margin for error with so many balls in the air, yet Gandini makes it look effortless. The most visually luscious moments are when the company synchronise throws to the beat of the music. There’s something so pleasurable about watching the coloured balls hang in the air, before being caught with ease. Individual identities are showcased with panache.
An edgy punk girl does a sassy turn to ‘Sympathy For The Devil’, rebounding balls off her legs and chest to make them disperse like a firework. A basketball spinning routine to Janis Joplin’s ‘Summertime’ provokes gasps as the performer casually rolls backwards while keeping the ball on his finger, culminating with a beautiful image of planets in orbit. The show finishes with a quirkily comic silent disco
send-up, with each performer singing, dancing and juggling wildly to their own beat. Truly exhilarating to watch. (Alexandra Gray) ■ Assembly Roxy, until 27 Aug (not 15, 21), 4.40pm, £12–£14.
66 THE LIST FESTIVAL 15–27 Aug 2018
There is an actual sauna out the front of Summerhall, operating for just a couple of hours in the evening. A visit there might well be more rewarding than this slow-burn piece of wordless mask and object theatre from Finland that never truly sparks into life. Part of the Taiwan Season, Eyal Dadon has made Bon 4 Bon especially for Chang Dance Theatre, a unique young company comprised of four brothers. Needless to say, it’s a family affair in this sensitively expressed piece about the bonds – and fruit – they share.
Created by the Helsinki-based Teatteri As the audience enters, one brother is lying on
Metamorfoosi, the show focuses on an elderly woman sitting in a sauna essentially waiting to die. But then a sauna spirit materialises, triggering memories in the old lady that lead her back to life. It’s a fairly simple, low-key but promising premise. Cast members Ilka Hartikainen and Johanna Kultala are encased in some pretty convincingly stylised body suits, with skinny, low-hanging, breasts for the old woman and love handles for the more buxom spirit creature. The production’s physical set-up is potentially pretty charming too, with three platforms arranged centre-stage and, off to the side, a third performer, Riina Tikkanen, who provides nice live sound effects (creaks, scrapes, bell-tones, water drips and the like). But the theatre space itself isn’t conducive to the kind of gentle intimacy for which the show strives. The addition of dim lighting, a slow pace and the overall lack of drive means this sauna fails to gather steam. (Donald Hutera) ■ Summerhall, until 26 Aug (not 20), 5.25pm, £10 (£8).
the floor. He reminisces about times he remembers spending with his family, when they would fight over the delicious cool mangoes they loved to eat. In a surprising use of the space, his three brothers creep in through the venue door. They have a warm, slightly mischievous presence and glide with beautiful lightness and looseness through shifting floor patterns and configurations that evolve organically. Taking turns to speak, each brother begins ‘I
remember . . .’, the words extending a thread into the past. Lovely moments of unison describe their shared history, such as when all four point their foot with the words ‘my three brothers’. The profound themes of belonging and family are evoked with subtlety, the boys exchanging socks, posing like a boyband, or quoting street dance moves.
Sometimes tender, sometimes fierce, this is a beautifully constructed evocation of brotherly love. (Alexandra Gray) ■ Dance Base, until 26 Aug (not 20), 5pm, £13 (£11).