[2015059] STRANDS

[2015059] STRANDS

Nigel Major-Henderson [dir] @ Channel 9 Kevin Crease Studios

6:30pm, Sat 21 Feb 2015

The Fringe Guide précis for STRANDS lays it out pretty clearly: “How hair and movement is tied together!” it exclaims. So I – along with a surprising number of other people (for a Fringe dance performance) – figured that there’d be some loose thematic elements in choreography that might invoke the thought of hair.

But as soon as STRANDS starts, I realise there’s going to be a bit of a problem… because the Kevin Crease Studio is not really the type of space to be performing a dance such as this. Sight-lines were terrible for all but the middle section of seats, leading me to employ that awful (and ineffective – when will I learn?) head-jerking-craning motion far too often.

For a young cast, the range of movement was pretty good… mostly. Some pieces felt poorly rehearsed, but others just felt poorly timed – the choreographer’s problem (or perhaps the choice of music). And whilst the soundtrack was certainly diverse – Kate Bush to System Of A Down – some of the editing was… well, rough: the music used in the reprise sounded like it had been cut with a rusty meat cleaver, and there were often long pauses with the dancers onstage waiting for their music to start.

The second piece stands out in my mind: highly active pop-ish dancing set to a ponderous classical piece created a memorable dissonance. The piece that had the dancers crawling towards light generated nice shadows within the space, but was again let down by poor timing.

There were moments of creative and physical movement goodness in STRANDS, and most of them related closely to the hair theme, including the pieces where dancers were joined via their hair. But as some point, I remember asking myself: When does it stop being inspirational, and start becoming fetishism?

…Not that I’m complaining, mind you. With hair like mine, it’d be hypocritical to whinge about the fetishist follicular focus of STRANDS. Some of the choreography, though, gave me plenty to whinge about.

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