DANCE REVIEW: Dance Triple Bill, Liverpool Empire

Feb 1 2008 by Philip Key, Liverpool Daily Post

THERE were three very different dance companies on stage at the Empire last night as part of the British Dance Edition 2008 gathering in Liverpool.

One mixed film with dance, another jazz and a third tried circus-like ribbon twirling. The result, a highly entertaining evening.

It was the Russell Maliphant Company who went for film in Small Boats, the film from Isaac Julien, whose idea this was, played out on a huge screen in front of the six dancers. The dancers were at first hidden as the camera panned along a boat graveyard and became clearer as the screen split.

On screen, someone fell down stairs, on stage a dancer tumbled. A soundscape by Andy Cowton – mostly percussion and bird noises – added to the curious mixture of film and onstage action, more movement than dance but fascinating.

Choreographer Liv Lorent’s Tenderhook, for Scottish Dance Theatre, was a haunting piece with four male and four female dancers dressed in light, colourful outfits, twirling ribbons with even the male dancers en pointe. With their fluttery, nervous movement, it had the imagery of a fantasy circus.

Then the ribbons failed to twirl, drooped and couples paired off, dancing together as if for protection. With its atmospheric music from film composer Ezio Bosso, smoky stage and exotic movement, the piece was delicate and slightly disturbing.

The Henri Oguike Company brought Green In Blue, the one work of the evening to use live music, a jazz quartet led by saxophonist Iain Bellamy, who wrote the specially commissioned score.

It was also the one work in which music was used as a spur to dance rather than provide background detail. As the musicians played, the dancers reacted to it almost spontaneously, their bodies warping into all kinds of rhythmic jerks.

It was a thrilling blend of music and dance in all its forms, and the evening itself demonstrated just how diverse modern dance can be.

SEE Box Office for an interview with choreographer Hofesh Shechter whose dance company perform at the Empire tomorrow.