Midsommar left audiences feeling shell-shocked and fascinated in equal measure when Ari Aster’s 2019 film hit cinemas. Its name and visual likeness now lend themselves to this short display of dance and physicality from the InMotion Dance Collective. If you are expecting something bloody, distressing and transgressive akin to the film, you are wrong. What it does share however is its namesake’s exploration of femininity, earth, and emotion through ritual. 

Midsommar’s soundtrack of Cocteau Twins and Florence & the Machine might seem a little on the nose, but it scarcely detracts from what is often a transfixing performance. While there is synchronicity between the dancers, each performer also feels allowed to ebb and flow in their own way to the music as if the situation is speaking to each of them differently. They sprawl over almost every inch of available space, using an empty stage to their advantage and finding ingenious ways to move across the room as one.

Every one of the performers throws themselves into an accomplished display of movement and ritualistic dance, navigating the stage with macabre confidence and strength. Midsommar explores the link between womanhood and nature, Some of the dancers regularly smear dirt onto their faces and necks to illustrate the point further. Others perform mini-ceremonies that seem like they talk to an endless cycle of birth and rebirth, and at times the movement becomes deliberately erratic to suggest that things are not as they should be. You sometimes wish there was a more elaborate setting to help bring the themes to the surface with more visual drama and impact, but Midsommar nonetheless does an admirable job of using dance to explore these fascinating subjects. 

By comparison to most shows, Midsommar is over in the blink of an eye at a mere 25 minutes. Its impact however can be longer lasting if you can give yourself over to the magical performance that the cast manages to deliver. Bewitching and impeccably performed, this could be one of the festival’s best-kept secrets. 

Midsommar is at Paradise in Augustines – The Sanctuary until Sat 10 Aug 2024 at 13:00