The Place

A despairing situation often forces people to have a different perspective on time. You Remind Me of Someone I Once Knew is a poignant portrayal of the most intimate frustrations and fears that are evoked in such forlorn circumstances. Kimberley Collins and Georgia Godfrey begin the piece curled up tightly on the floor, moving slowly in circles, mirroring the movement of hands on a clock with the passing of time. The pair repeatedly threw themselves to the floor in anguish, only finding temporary solace in each other’s embrace.

Mathematics and dance seem to be unlikely bedfellows, yet Hamish MacPherson and Martine Painter’s duet has found a Meeting Place for the two. The piece reflected a thoroughly considered approach, building up a number of simple movements in a formulaic way. In spite of the seemingly rigid structure it is based on, Meeting Place had a certain refreshing, unrehearsed quality. The choreographers-turned-performers were delightfully unpredictable as they engaged in playful dialogue with each other, boldly sustaining moments of stillness and amplifying the humour in the occasional and apparently coincidental moments with their deadpan faces and absolute conviction.

An alien being detained at Earth’s border without a visa is the centerpiece of Jose Campos’ Local Group. Benson the alien, who resembles a cross between a scarecrow and a monkey, shrugs its way through questions posed by two stern immigration officers, revealing it to be a fifteen year old high school student. This puzzling exchange is followed by two dancers wearing cone hats of their height, bending very slowly to lively tribal drumming. The work is bookended by an ensemble of dancers moving in various permutations around the stage, repeating the same sequence so many times that I was willing them to stop.

Germaine Cheng

Sometimes it pays to keep things simple. CoDa Dance's You remind me of someone I once knew is at its strongest when its at its starkest – the two very good performers, Kimberley Collins and Georgia Godfrey, in matching movements, slow and grounded. The unison moves are compelling, played in perfect parallel, not just in timing but in weight and attack. Then they grow into something less harmonious, more confrontational. They're together, they're apart, they're both of those things at the same time. The glitchy electronic soundtrack threatens to overwhelm the choreography with its unvarying tone of mild torment, but there's enough emotional heft and sincerity in their dancing to see them through.             

An algorithmic formula is behind Hamish MacPherson and Martine Painter's Meeting Place. You know, algorithms, like the complex formulae that investment banks' computers use to drive us into financial meltdown. This one, however, has a far more benign and entertaining purpose, and results in a moderately charming game of repetition, accumulation and amusing absurdity. As a pair of performers, MacPherson and Painter have a nice connection and they string together simple units of movement - an arm swing, a raised leg, a vocal yelp – in a manner that manages to keep our attention for almost the full twenty minutes. Some genuine laughs out loud and a nice visible logic at play. 

Logic is the ingredient completely missing from Do Not Dance UK's Local Group, choreographed by Jose Campos. The highlight of the piece is one girl's rendition of the bossa nova tune How Insensitive, with a voice so delicate it might drift away on the Ipanema breeze. Around her flock a murmuration of birdlike dancers, wings rolling, feet padding in rhythmic unison. All very hypnotic. But as for the rest: more birds, two boys in pointy cone hats crouching VERY slowly, some lasers, two border patrol officials questioning a straw-covered refugee from space. Random – that's the only word for it.

Lyndsey Winship

What did you think? Tell us your thoughts on the Resolution! Review tab on our Facebook page.