Richard Alston Dance Company, Exeter Northcott, 4 and 5 November 2008
By Martin Hodge
I went along not really knowing what to expect, just hoping that I’d be entertained. I was. I thoroughly enjoyed the visual and auditory spectacle and was impressed by the grace, precision and sheer exuberance of the performers.
The musical choice was unpredictable, even eccentric, for modern dance: a piece by Philip Glass, known for his minimalism (though this was actually quite melodic and definitely rhythmic); part of Schumann’s song cycle; and a more obvious danceable selection of tunes by Hoagy Carmichael (though we had stop-start music renditions and dialogue for dancers to take account of in their performance too). For me, it all worked.
The dancers in the first piece Blow Over had nifty silvery grey outfits and displayed sheer joy and playfulness in all their movement.
Some of the time in the more sombre Body & Soul I was trying to work out what it was all about. If there was a story I couldn’t quite follow it. But it really didn’t matter as I was spellbound by the weaving together of the music and the dance and of the interaction taking place amongst all the participants.
Particularly moving were the playfulness and physical warmth between two of the men and the attentive reaction by the female dancers’ to the singer’s joining in the action with slow but steadfast stepping, first forward and then backwards. What did it mean? Who cares? And it seemed right that Shuffle It Right should be the finale.
It was a jubilant, at times humorous, and always uplifting, dance performance.
The lighting was good: mainly white side lighting putting just the right spotlight on the action. The absence of props meant that our focus was totally on the performers. The audience seemed warm and engaged throughout.
Mostly, congratulations should be given to those involved in the choreography and production and the dancers, singer and pianist who worked together to give us a superb show. I list details of the programme and the performers.
Blow Over (music: Philip Glass, Songs From Liquid Days)
Body and Soul (music: Dichterliebe from Schumann’s song cycle)
Shuffle It Right (music and songs by Hoagy Carmichael)
Dancers: Hannah Kidd, Wayne Parsons, Anneli Binder, Amie Brown, Katie Lusby, Sonja Peedo, Andres de Blust-Mommaerts, Darren Ellis, Quentin Nagyos, Pierre Tappon
Pianist: Jason Ridgway
Singer: Jason Piper