Anna Bjerre Larsen & Keir Patrick A bed, basement, car
Rachel Dean Entwined
Organised Chaos Dance Disconnected
A bed, basement, car opens with Anna Bjerre Larsen in plain clothes, sensible shoes and specs. Her partner Keir Patrick looks pretty workaday himself, and together they peer at, gesticulate and shy away from each other in an entrancing sequence that's part formal composition, part cartoonish caricature. Too soon, it's over: the glasses come off, and the rest of the piece never quite recaptures that goofy rigour, though it follows a similar pattern of stylised actions and oddball non-sequiturs (flinches, shrugs, masturbation). Hanging lightbulbs provide fitful illumination. Though Larsen and Patrick are very watchable and the specs make a welcome return, the whys and wherefores are - like the action itself - often glimpsed rather than grasped.
Twice in Rachel Dean's Entwined a voiceover simply spells out the premise: a woman remembering her grandmother's sewing box, and how the women would tell stories as they stitched. That's just enough information to thread a sharp line of imagery through the piece. Twisting and cutting bolts of cloth, tracing patterns in the air, Dean and textile artist Julia Kalache bring a series of storytelling metaphors to life: weaving tales, gathering material, fabrications. The drapes and swathes impart an almost palpable sense of being wrapped up in a story. It's an entrancing piece. Enchanting music too: plaintive piano dissonances, motoric spinning-wheel rattles.
Lizzi Giles must love Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's seminal 1983 work Rosas Danst Rosas, which featured four women, four chairs, and a severe composition of sharp gestures diced and spliced in rhythmically overlapping sequences. Giles's Disconnected is much the same, but with two women and chairs. Many actions look familiar: the jack-knifed torso, arms thrust or dropped, hands swishing over hair. Dancers Sarah Blanc and Linda Tabraham are committed performers, though not as precise as the composition demands. Disconnected might be a homage, or a study in the style of Rosas Danst Rosas; but if you've seen the original it feels like a pale imitation.
Sanjoy Roy
Starting an evening of diverse duets, dancers and choreographers, Anna Bjerre Larsen and Keir Patrick stroll on stage like the poster children for an indie fashion label in their work A bed, basement, car. Devised by the prolific lighting designer Guy Hoare, three bare bulbs suspended above the stage, light three distinct locations which the artful pair moves in and out of, intertwining with each other. Unexpectedly there is a change of direction, knickers are removed and suddenly the piece becomes comically, overtly sexual, ending with the red-faced self gratification of Patrick. A capricious work, A bed, basement, car is choreographically quirky and emphatic but frustratingly impenetrable.
Exhibiting more serene qualities, Entwined by Rachel Dean explores the relationship between the art of dance and the art of dressmaking. Composed and collected, Dean imitates the disjointed movements of a mannequin with a surprising beauty, whilst dressmaker Julia Kalache recreates her shapes on a piece of cloth, yet here the affinity ends. Disappointingly little relationship seems to be established. Apparently unable to find a way for the two art forms to coexist, the work continually switches its focus from dance to dressmaking but never successfully merges the two together. Refreshingly novel, Dean's concept has the scope to be explored further.
From the serene to the frantic, Organised Chaos Dance is a fitting name for the company performing Lizzi Giles' piece Disconnected. Expending little energy on costume and lighting, Giles' choreography needed no help keeping the audience entertained. In a relentless marathon of movement, dancers Sarah Blanc and Linda Tabraham, throw and catch their limbs at breakneck speed. Always connected but never acknowledging each other, the duo performs its high-octane question and answer session to the slightly predictable, angsty sounds of Radiohead. Relentless in its dynamic, Disconnected would perhaps benefit from an occasional change of pace but the slick and astute choreography is impressive for a First Footing company.
Jennifer Teale
Anna Bjerre Larsen & Keir Patrick, A bed, basement, car
Rachel Dean, Entwined
Organised Chaos Dance, Disconnected