Immersion in somatic sensuality through music and dance, which engages and perplexes.
Rating
Excellent!
Julia Robert & Rudi Cole, founders of international dance company HUMANHOOD, bring Vortex to Sadler’s Wells East, where we join their talented company in “the eye of the tornado”. Vortex is a complex experience of somatic dance, pulsing rhythms and sympathetic light patterns that engage and perplex.
Unlike with regular theatre productions, the lights dim gradually, the audience easing into the quiet darkness as the performance begins. Co-designed by Aiden Bromley (Woodroffe Bassett Design), the lighting invites curiosity, soft spotlighting illuminating briefly and disappearing swiftly. As the patterning of lights fluctuates, ghostly forms begin to inhabit the stage. Intense focus is required to see the fleeting apparitions of dancers, making this a difficult visual space for those partially-sighted or indeed seated further back in this auditorium.
The music (Kamil Boguslawsky, Alex Forster, Iain Armstrong, Cole and Robert) is rhythmic, insistent and comforting, and as the performance grows it further compels attention and immersion. The combination of music, movement and lighting transports human senses; weaving between conscious and subconscious, from somnambulistic to alert and vibrant.
There is a demanding vulnerability to this piece, with brooding command of the audience through dusky lighting and haze, and the rhythmic insistence of the beautiful music. It delivers moments of complete submission, suggestive of a warm sound bath, comforting the senses and releasing tension. Audience reactions are varied, some immersed and contemplative, while others disturb the darkness checking digital devices. Such is the immersion through music and dance that the sensorial dissonance of typical audience behaviour is more startling and invasive.
The HUMANHOOD dance company move fluidly, each movement augmented by the androgynous, flowing streetwear (Cole, Robert), adding further grace and otherworldliness to this unusual production. The unique statures of each dancer inhabit the stage, their fluency and collaboration eliciting appreciation and admiration. As the music builds, their cohesive work as a company is evident. From finding their way, seemingly effortlessly, across a darkened stage, to their spellbinding materialisation and rapid dematerialisation, we wonder at their teleportation capabilities. There is a sense of world travel, with movement and rhythms from across ancient cultures including Hopi and Navajo. Movements are reminiscent of the whirling dervish, leaders and magi of ancient Persia and healers from African tribes.
The vibrancy of this company is enhanced when Cole joins the ensemble in performance. With shamanic presence, he lifts the physical energy and emotional safety of this vortex; leading with an incomparable elegance and fervour. Cole & Robert are a compelling force in their productions that stimulate, engage and heal.
Concept, Direction and Choreography by Julia Robert and Rudi Cole
Music Composition by Iain Armstrong
Co-Lighting Design by Aiden Bromley (Woodroffe Bassett Design)
Music by Kamil Boguslawsky, Alex Forster, Iain Armstrong, Rudi Cole and Julia Robert
Costumes by Julia Robert and Rudi Cole
Set Design by Julia Robert and Rudi Cole
Co-commissioned by Mercat de les Flors, Festival Grec and MAC Birmingham
Supported by Institut of the Arts of Barcelona, FABRIC Birmingham and RocaUmbert
A HUMANHOOD production
Vortex plays at Sadler’s Wells East until Saturday 14 November
