An exploration of the 7 October terrorist attacks, told through a mix of dance and narrative, this play has some powerful moments but stronger commitment to its elements would deliver a more powerful punch.Rating
Good
The rave culture is all about unity amongst its participants; an unspoken bond between clubbers simply out to lose themselves in a moment and yet to also be part of a whole. But when the 7 October Hamas terrorist attack on a dance festival took place in 2023, writer Andreas Bedorf felt a need to question what happens when that unity is torn apart in such an atrocious manner. It’s a premise that clearly makes Dance Again an incredibly emotive show.
At the festival is Noa (Stephanie Christodoulidou), along with four close friends, all there to embrace the abandon of dancing and drugs. Except Noa experiences a bad trip, leaving her in need of her friends’ support to get through it. It’s while she is having that bad experience that the attack occurs, killing three of her friends, whilst she and one other somehow escape. In the aftermath, the two survivors question why. Why did they survive while others didn’t? Why did one of their friends sacrifice himself for their safety? And how do they ever dance again?
The show sits in a strange place; it’s part rave, part movement and part drama. Yet the parts don’t quite marry up to give a satisfying whole, none quite strong enough on its own. The early rave scenes attempt to create that feel of unity, that euphoria of being part of a collective whole. While the idea is sound, the execution is not yet there. The energy of the rave is lacking, almost too subdued to drag the audience in to the moment. There is an argument that the volume could be cranked up and the lights made wilder to really express the moment. The dance and movement demonstrate good direction as our focus is shifted from one to the other, but the actual choreography lacks the required punch to help drive the narrative forward.
Where the piece does work, and shows the promise of what it could be, are the harrowing scenes as the terrorist attack takes place, powerfully representing the horrors and fear that must have been present. Watching three laughing, masked men circle a lone woman as she is tossed between them is an arresting image, the most striking of the show.
The play moves into more subdued territory in its later scenes as the two survivors attempt to make sense of the attack and come to terms with their losses. There is powerful sentiment here, which will undoubtedly resonate powerfully with many, yet again it feels underdeveloped, relying on emotion but without the correct vehicle to drive home its points. Sentiment alone is not enough to engage a full audience.
Dance Again certainly has a strong and heart-wrenching premise, but right now it isn’t fully utilised. The production perhaps needs to decide if it wants to lean more heavily into the dance and bring in stronger choreography or if it wants to work instead on the script and draw out the emotion that way. For now, it straddles both halves without seeming to commit entirely to either. But there are enough striking moments to still leave a mark, and which could very easily be built upon.
Cast: Stephanie Christodoulidou, Mai Weisz, Charlie Howe, Chris McCormack, Weyal Bariz, Andreas Bedorf
Written by Andreas Bedorf
Directed by Andreas Bedorf and Dr Pedro Perez Rothstein
Movement direction by Maya Dagan
Movement and Voice Coach: Tajiyah Sulwana
Dance Again has completed its run at Camden Fringe.
