Dance
Scottish Dance Theatre
The Flock/Moving Cloud
Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock
four stars
Outside, as the day edges into evening, clouds are meandering over the Clyde while some persistent gulls are following a tug-boat on the water. It’s a natural backdrop that chimes in, perfectly, with the strikingly effective double bill that Scottish Dance Theatre presented at the Beacon this week.
Birds in flight is the underlying inspiration for The Flock, choreographed by Roser López Espinosa and set to a (mainly percussive) soundscore by Mark Drillich and Ilia Mayer that hints at birds cawing or bills rapidly clicking and clattering.
But even as Espinosa threads in birdlike movements - arms outstretched as if in flight, dancers wheeling and turning in instinctive unison - the choreography harbours a very human sense of community and team work. It’s present in the frequent, affirmative eye contact in the grouping and re-grouping that sees the dancers echo the formations of migrating birds or the ensemble togetherness of team spirit.
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When, after a sudden blackout, all eight are prone as if exhausted, unselfish support emerges: a lone male stirs, rises and chivvies others to revive. Bodies are lifted, cradled and carried, hefted shoulder high, physically re-energised - a focussed urgency takes hold as once again the group regains synchronicity of purpose and action. The SDT dancers make this consummate precision look spontaneous, effortless… not just impressive, but ultimately moving too.
Dry ice billows across the stage for choreographer Sofia Nappi’s Moving Cloud, merrily set to a witty, Celtically-connected score by Donald Shaw and TRIP. Out of this mist come figures clad in a mix of styles - a kilt, ‘cutty sarks’ among them - that suggest past and present while allowing lithe, pliant bodies to kick up their heels and swagger with nuanced abandon. Not a fast-moving, nifty foot is ever out of place however. The fun comes with seeing remarkable dancers keeping pace with traditional rhythms, giving them modern accents and invigorating twists.
Brilliant!
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