DecoDance vs Penny Serenade This is Jamm Heart
Sarah Lewis & Steve Johnstone The revelations of Orca the goldfish
Midnight Orange Productions we wear the same trousers
This is Jamm Heart is billed as a battle between seven-strong dance group DecoDance and six-piece band Penny Serenade. In fact, there was no contest: Mel Simpson's choreography follows the music as eagerly as a puppy chasing a ball; and besides, the band simply wins, hands down. Their ensemble is tauter, their numbers catchier. In natty red and black, they even look better. The dancers, in gauzy red shifts, appear in a cod-classical tableau, Kyle Stevenson swaying like a male Aphrodite flanked by two nymphs. There follows plenty of fluttering and frothing, Mexican waves, a waltz-by of women, and a final meeting of boy with girl as everyone makes hand-on-heart gestures. The dancers lack the skill and the stage presence to carry this off convincingly.
Sarah Lewis and Steve Johnstone are a much more interesting pair. The revelations of Orca the goldfish is their misleading title for a sequence of scenes highlighting different facets of coupledom. First there's a freewheeling harmony - the honeymoon period, I guess - as they tail after and tumble over each other. Soon their bodies seem magnetised, softly repelling each other so that they never quite touch. There's a section based on tit-for-tat kicks, one on supportive lifts, one - gently comic - in which she simply refuses to look him in the eye. It's an understated portrait, but nuanced, affecting and effective.
There's yet more coupledom in we wear the same trousers. A line of salt bisects the stage, and the choreography is a series of personal metaphors for that dividing line. On either side of the line, Sophie Arstall and Thomas Goodwin (who are indeed in identical trousers) bridge the gap between them by leaning against each other in cantilevered shapes. They cross the line; they smear it, blurring the boundaries. Their arms link into a seamless loop, or tangle them up in knots. There's plenty of physical intelligence here, though not yet enough polish for a finished piece.
Sanjoy Roy
The company name suggests that either DecoDance or Penny Serenade intended to win in this ode to the beating heart. Mel Simpson's integrated, pre-valentine's, elucidation on the physiology of falling in love, reverberated with organic fluctuations and oscillating rhythms of blood surging through the body. DecoDance, a strong company with ample technical skill, allowed This is Jamm Heart to focus on clear emotions of the inclusion or exclusion of companionship. Facial expressions, forced at times, heightened the dynamics of the interpersonal relationships. This is Jamm Heart is a refreshing ballad of 1920's, jellyfish like blood cells conducted by the chemistry of love and Penny Serenade's electrified melodies.
Through inspired use of various, well known, dramatic exercises Sarah Lewis and Steve Johnstone sculpt a series of events depicting intimate kinship. We have the privilege to observe a relationship that builds to a playful poetry where both Lewis and Johnstone are delicately involved in the fantasy. Repeated cycles in their movement are re-enforced by the piece's arching structure; Johnstone animates Lewis's movements and vice-versa. They find simplicity through a graceful portrayal of David Tristram's play. Although there is no sign of the omnipotent ‘Orca' and what he/she is privy to, what we do get to witness is exquisitely beautiful.
Sophie Arstall and Thomas Goodwin skillfully listen and commit to each other with fluidity. By beginning with a stark white line drawn in salt across the center of the stage they demonstrate an instinct towards the theatrical convention of tension. Arstall and Goodwin position themselves either side and we instantly engage in the ‘danger' of crossing or disturbing this volatile structure. However, perhaps to the fault of improvised performance, Midnight Orange Productions miss their mark. Although, contact improvisation can provide an exciting, live dynamic, we wear the same trousers collapsed into itself and became self indulgent, as contact improvisation so often does. Having seen this work, it would be very interesting to see Arstall and Goodwin work with set choreography.
Zoe Cobb