DANCE
Douglas
FOUR STARS
Handsome
THREE STARS
Tramway, Glasgow
Mary Brennan
Wooden chairs, a tightly rolled length of dance floor, some rope, a spotlight. An assortment of inanimate objects that, in Douglas, acquire a crafty vitality because of how Robbie Synge interacts with them.
His is a choreography of cause and effect, a solo that edges from bravura tricksiness to something unexpectedly affecting, bordering on the cataclysmic even. For even as we laugh, delightedly, at the domino effects he engineers - him atop the roll of lino, it toppling and triggering a clatter of falling chairs - there comes a point where his brinkmanship balances and the collapse of inter-related structures, the sheer disintegration of an everyday context, loses its playful "what if...?" humour and hints at consequences beyond control.
At every stage, however, Synge's own physical control is impressively in place, as is his business-like precision in setting up each episode. David Maxwell's live soundscape adds to the adventure as Synge, draped in all four chairs, uses his travelling feet to unroll the inner secret of that lino... Whereupon those objects assert themselves, as does gravity - a force that isn't a laughing matter when defied.
Underhand Dance has gender in mind with Chrissie Ardill's choreography for Handsome, teasing at the cliches associated with masculine and feminine movement. Her dancers - three women, one man (who also drums) - share a lovely elasticity of limb, as well as a sense of humour as they prowl, swagger, flirt or cut loose to Motown rhythms.
But solos assert individuality, a male/female duet shifts into role-reversal moves, and there's a strand of send-up where those supposed gender differences are merrily debunked in the sway of a hip, the spraddle of a walk. All very much appreciated by the DIG (Dance International Glasgow) audience.
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