Dance
Rambert2
King’s Theatre, Edinburgh
Mary Brennan
****
SOME 800 hopefuls, from all across the world, auditioned to be part of Rambert’s new ‘junior’ wing: only 13 were chosen to become the first-ever incarnation of Rambert2. Together, and as individuals, they are breathtakingly accomplished - it’s easy to forget that these young dancers are all early-career performers.
In Grey Matter, choreographed by Rambert’s new artistic director Benoit Swan Pouffer, the core ensemble is akin to a cluster of brain cells: sometimes in synch, sometimes fragmenting as if neural networks are glitching - the red/orange colour splashes on costumes suggest haemorrhages, while a wayward solo has the feel of mind/body connections derailing as pulsating sound levels increase in volume.
Closing the programme, Sharon Eyal’s Killer Pig (2009) is brutally full-on choreography that takes no prisoners - and that extends to the audience. For over 40 minutes, the rhythmically insistent score pounds out patterns of beats like a robotic sergeant-major. The dancers, in flesh-coloured swim-wear, respond with episodes of tippy-toed mincing, jitter-jerking limbs, sexy-strutting groovings and even sudden balletic spins and jumps - a gamut of exacting moves that loop from catwalk to exercise yard to nightclub, with the emphasis on well-drilled unison.
It’s an unrelenting regime: dare to break away and a frisson of threat closes in. Individuality spoils the pack dynamic, awkward physical difference - limbs flailing or spasming - see ranks closing, as if to hide away/deny the existence of imperfections. Occasionally, the eight sweat-drenched dancers come to the front of the stage, and stare out at us - a discomfiting reminder that we’re voyeurs in plush seats, looking on while they undergo an exhaustive test of both mental and physical strength and stamina.
Rafael Bonachella’s intense duet, E2 7SD (from 2004) comes in the middle, with Conor Kerrigan and Aishwarya Raut wonderfully under the skin of a relationship fraught with love-hate tensions. Athletic, focussed, electrifying - and emblematic of Rambert2 as a whole.
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