There aren’t many contemporary dance companies outside of London who make it to thirty-five years. So, it’s with some credibility that Phoenix Dance Theatre can claim to be ‘the national contemporary dance company of the north’, and celebrate their thirty-fifth year in style with a triple bill, running for three nights at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Part of the reason for Phoenix’s longevity is their ability to draw a variety of audiences to a performance art often found lacking in contemporary programmes. As the lights go down in the Playhouse’s largest auditorium, it’s clear that people of all ages, genders and backgrounds are eager to see what this exciting, diverse company has to offer.
The evening’s opening piece, Melt, is a thrilling study in the elements of fire and water and, despite the programme advising the audience not to ‘delve too hard to discover what it’s about’, there is a clear motif of disintegration throughout. Choreographer and Artistic Director Sharon Watson’s decision to incorporate trapezes and ropes into the dance makes for an exciting visual spectacle. The dancers wrap themselves in the dangling ropes and, with effective pace, transfer their weight to create a human pendulum. These scenes are at their most poignant when performed as duets, the intertwining of dancers never seeming clumsy. In fact, it’s Watson’s skill for cross-choreographing the duets in the air with simultaneous duets on the ground that creates the piece’s climax, urging a stunned audience to consider the weight our grounded partnerships can often hold. Melt’s effectiveness is certainly enhanced by the music, all lifted from Wild Beasts’ debut album ‘Two Dancers’; it’s easy to see how the music aids this touching piece.
It’s music that’s at the heart of the following piece, Undivided Loves, the latest offering from choreographer Kate Flatt, which features the jazz-tinged world music of Adriano Adewale, who joins the dancers onstage to perform additional percussion parts. Admittedly, the narrative of Undivided Loves is more obvious, the piece being directly inspired by five Shakespearian sonnets, yet Flatt’s translation of the written word into movement is a refreshing one. We witness the classic themes of love, duplicity and betrayal through a series of duets and solos, with a stand-out performance from Marie-Astrid Mence. Mence’s dream sequence is the piece’s most beautiful scene, with Mence, en-pointe, circling her lover as he sleeps, the repeated patterns lulling the audience into true appreciation.
Until.With/Out.Enough really is a finale; Israeli choreographer Itzik Galili is known for his deft explorations of the mind’s interior spaces, and ensemble sections that see dancers fleeing from the visually jarring huddle at centre stage is a moving reminder of the transience of thought. There are moments of confusion – the energy is cut suddenly by the arrival of a single white balloon, walked slowly across the stage – but these generally add to the fray which Galili creates. Energy, intimacy and tension prevail in this compelling conclusion.
Phoenix Dance Theatre complete an evening that is, at heart, a successful showcase. But it is testament to the company’s commitment to the highest standards of dance as well grassroots access to the arts, that tonight’s performance was not just a showcase of their own work, but of the capabilities of independent arts organisations all over the North.
Will Reece-Arnold
Image courtesy of Tristram Kenton for the Guardian