Festival Dance
Four stars
“Dwindling attendance. Soaring debt. And low morale…” Words that cut, like unerring swords, to the heart of this General Meeting of the Benevolent and Protective Order - amateur medieval re-enactors who stage an annual cosplay Quest Fest. Mind you, those words - woven into the narrative of Assembly Hall - could apply to Scottish arts-makers facing cuts in their funding. Clearly what is needed is a Knight in Shining Armour to save the day.
For choreographer Crystal Pite and writer Jonathon Young, it’s that mythic appeal of (mostly) Arthurian legend that underpins the actions and interactions of Assembly Hall, given its Scottish Premiere at the Edinburgh Festival. As the eight members of the Order wrangle over the future of their imperilled organisation - some ready to disband, others determined to fight on - complex questions emerge from within what often looks like goofy farce. And as the everyday reality of the meeting morphs into medieval fantasy - and yes, a Knight in very bright and shiny armour does appear! - this seemingly off-the-wall dance-theatre piece asks why such escapism matters to each individual. What ‘armour’ do any of us adopt to protect us from whatever scares or disappoints our inner being?
The dancers in Pite’s company, Kidd Pivot, rise to every occasion with tremendous panache. They lip-synch convincingly to Young’s pre-recorded text, with gestural body language emphasising the nit-picking protocols - petty points of order and voting rules - alongside pertinent personal characteristics. The slippage into ancient fantasy brings episodes of compelling dance: ensemble ‘battles’, a noble duet, a frenetic solo all carry Pite’s flair for mixing styles from classical to street with seamless ease. Back and forth, from present to past and back again, Assembly Hall is profoundly complex and hugely ambitious - visually striking, with a cunningly strange sound score and mood-shifting lighting designs. Altogether weird and wonderful - very Kidd Pivot and very EIF as well!
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