Angelina Jandolo Aqueous Run
Jerrel Jackson & Dougie Evans Instinct
Rachel Birch-Lawson/Project Mashed Potato Frugal Feasts
Often young artists make the mistake of cramming too many ideas into their pieces, but in Aqueous Run, Angelina Jandolo has clearly learnt the value of giving us space to think. She’s aided by a live soundtrack of sparsely layered pizzicato guitar that’s a welcome change from the moody electronic drones so commonplace in contemporary dance, and her trio of dancers make quiet experiments in navigating each other’s personal space, in seeming sympathy with the patterns and pixelations of Shay Hamias’s projections. The movement is hardly groundbreaking – some fluid curves, some angular poses, a little bit of repetitive Rosas-lite – but the way Jandolo uses it feels fresh, and the work has a completeness that’s often lacking in young choreographers.
Jerrel Jackson’s Instinct brings with it an undercurrent of aggression, as its four female protagonists tip between gentle needling and all-out girl fight. It’s all reflexes rather than emotion though, as bodies stutter, swoop and lurch in a chain of cause and effect. There’s some scrappiness in the execution but also some fine detail and it’s frustrating that the development feels stunted. A clearer trajectory, in choreography or concept, would mean we don’t have to rely on our instincts.
Personal space is a bit of a theme tonight, but Rachel Birch-Lawson’s Frugal Feasts takes it to extremes. She and Khyle Eccles are locked in a pattern of physical possession and repulsion, and from the moment she pulls herself out from under Eccles’s prone form and his hand snaps out to grab her wrist, it’s clear their bodies have ceased to be their own. The pair scrabble at each other’s skin; their limbs tangle as they roll in circles; she slaps her legs around his waist. It’s less the beast with two backs than an eight-limbed monster. Some of this we’ve seen before, but some is strikingly original, like when Eccles falls back flat, with a sated smile, smothering Birch-Lawson’s body beneath his own. Two very committed performers, but you can guess we’re not talking happy endings.
Lyndsey Winship
Hopeful choreography astrologists certainly bore witness to future talent in last night’s show- with the first two companies even bringing their musicians along for the ride.
Angelina Jandolo’s trio of talented female dancers and cleverly considered projections investigated the dynamics of communication in Aqueous Run. As a game of Tetris and other vintage computer games were displayed on the screen, dancers navigated their way in and around each other, slotting together like the various oblong shapes and in turn, fought their way into a comprehensive exchange. The original accompaniment by Laonikos Psimikakis-Chalkokondylis rippled over sharp gestures, springy bends and the warming companionship amongst the dancers like a sound wave.
An urban undertone was apparent throughout Jerrel Jackson and Dougie Evans’ impulsive composition, Instinct. Knee-jerk reaction movement happened entirely as a result of what had preceded it in this exploration of automated responses. An endless pattern of collapse and recovery encapsulated this piece as the quartet of very impressive female dancers fell to the floor, kicked and rippled. Slicing music added a somewhat tense backdrop as dancers looked to each other as if searching for an explanation for their inability to overcome the expected.
From bodies struggling to control themselves, to bodies incapable of separation, the final piece of the evening saw a love struck couple cocoon themselves in one another. Hand to face, mouth to cheek and hip to shoulder contact were integrated with innovative, rolling lifts which saw the duo literally attached to each other throughout Rachel Birch-Lawson’s Frugal Feasts. As a deeply involved relationship threw these dancers into a can’t live with/can't live without scenario, they resembled cells being divided yet systematically regrouping. Although this liaison escalated to the demise of the woman, danced by Birch-Lawson , 23 minutes was definitely too long, despite the absorbing proximities of the dancers.
Celia Moran