Dance
YAMA, Traverse, Edinburgh
Mary Brennan
FOUR STARS
The dancers, glowing sweaty in the triumph of sustaining this extended version of Damien Jalet's Yama, had left the stage. Traverse One was emptying in a buzz of enthusiasm for Scottish Dance Theatre's thrilling alchemy on-stage. A woman slipped down to the front and brushed her hand along the vast minimal-mystical structure (designed by Jim Hodges) that spawns and swallows, re-births and then claims back, Jalet's mesmerising choreography of evolutions, myths and rituals. Even without the shape-shifting bodies that initially writhe from its core, this geometric "slice" of cratered mountain top compels the eye, and primes the imagination.
Jalet cites the Japanese monks (Yamabushis) who live in worshipful isolation in the sacred mountains as inspiration. However his eclectic curiosity draws in aspects from other cultures - the cascading horsehair wigs that shroud the naked dancers' faces are Balinese ceremonial - alongside imagery from the sciences that, like ancient and eclipsed religious rites, fascinate us, even as we struggle to comprehend their mysteries. Those tendriling, headless, limbs that slither into view from the off-centre "mouth" could be early plant-life. Clumped and humped together, they could be febrile amoeba, or - when separating and re-grouping - they could be the molecular building blocks of life itself. Gradually, as the soundscore weaves melody into its thrumming pulses, these hybrid forms morph into human beings. Standing erect, with wigs discarded and now wearing piebald-corded tunics, they are as much an exhalation of the landscape as the smoke that coils out of the core, accelerating their pounding, swirling trance dance. They came from the core...Jalet's fierce, powerful and spiritually intense vision returns them there. STD's indefatigable dancers have shown us life's endless cycle, in just an hour.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article