I must admit, going into this performance, I had very low expectations. The trailer had me worried. How could an hour long performance of 4 people running around, screaming, and just generally carrying on be any good?
Well...it was good. No, it was better. It was great. This is truly one of the most powerful pieces, dance or otherwise, that I have ever seen. From the moment it started I was entranced. The way the dancers moved was absolutely stunning. While the movements seemed jerky and rough at times, it all flowed with an amazing, organic fluidity.
The sound was another key part of this piece. The way it echoed and reverberated throughout the small theater just added to the mystical feel of the show. The volume was just right, impressive and loud but not unbearably so.
The minimalist stage worked perfectly with the dancers. In other words, there was nothing on the stage to detract from what the dancers were doing. The whole stage (and most of the audience too) was illuminated by two massive, gazillion watt lights on both sides of the stage (see the ones in the trailer? Picture ones at least double that size). This leads me to my one qualm with the show, the lights. The lights were really, really, really, really, really, reeeaaalllllllllllyy bright. The cans were not "shielded" properly. Instead of directing the light only in the intended direction a lot of light blew out directly from the lamp, directly into the audiences eyes. This light was absolutely blinding, very painful to have directly in your eyes. Whether this was intentional or not (I really hope it wasn't intentional) it really detracted from the performance by making it almost too painful to watch.
Despite the semi-blindness, the piece was exquisitely choreographed and the sound direction was superb. I cannot recommend this highly enough. Just don't forget your sunglasses.
So sorry to hear that the lights were distracting you from the performance! It must have been your location. I was sitting on the right hand side towards the front and I don't have any complaints about the lighting. Such a shame!
ReplyDeleteIt seems like seating was a very important factor for response to this piece. I really didn't like it, and one of the specific reasons was because I thought the sound design was terrible. The lighting, however, looked great from where I was sitting (in the back toward the left side).
ReplyDeleteA little bit more about the sound: there were some things about it that I did like. I thought it was great that a lot of the sound was being generated by the dancers on stage and then manipulated electronically. For this reason, I thought the mediocre pre-recorded music was entirely unnecessary and extremely distracting. And with sounds that are inherently understood as "loud" sounds (screaming, for example), I felt that the amplified volume level was entirely too loud. The piece would have been just as effective at about half the volume. Overkill.