Michael Seaver

Exodus/Grand Junction

Dance Theatre of Ireland

In the past, choreographers Robert Connor and Loretta Yurick have reflected on estrangement from spirituality and nature within an increasingly technological society. Their premise is that although we all bear collective responsibility for these shifts, reconnection is only possible through individual, personal journeys.

Similarly the changes born through migration, the theme of their new work, Exodus, are not just physical displacements, but personal transformations. Projected images of airports, roads and cities nudge our thoughts toward journeys as we watch dancers cohabiting the stage with little sense of togetherness. Protective of personal space, their almost furtive dancing feels like a clutched suitcase containing all of their possessions. Later, when metaphorically and physically stripped, they reveal the histories behind these movements through snatches of text. Although Exodus clearly illustrates these stories and the isolation, cruelty and prejudice that can occur in migration, there is a lack of cohesiveness in the artistic statement.

Even the sense of liberation promised in the programme was unfelt. A final image of a body carried, laid to rest and buried with a handful of dust may have been beautifully striking, but felt neither redemptive nor conclusive.

Charles Linehan had a smaller palette in creating Grand Junction: two dancers, a thoughtful lighting design and Nye Parry and Julian Swales' leavening music. Dancers Karl Paquemar and Melanie Nezereau move in isolation on a soft-edged grid of nine blurry spotlights, an occasional common movement, phrase or shared glance connecting them. Physical contact occurs because paths collide rather than by choice, but later more positive impulses bring them together as the movement shifts up through the gears along with momentum-building musical changes.

Paquemar's arms encircle Nezereau from behind for a split second before he spins away, but it is enough to register and be meaningful. The fluid released movement and warm seductive glow from stage lead to Linehan's dances often being described as "soft". But Grand Junction, like his other work, is rigorously constructed and shows his confidence in letting nuanced movements and a fast visual rhythm articulate the universal.

November 10, 2006

Dance Theatre of Ireland | Pavilion Theatre