@ Summerhall, Edinburgh until Sun 23 Aug @ 15:25
The Demonstration a room in Summerhall is set up in an unfamiliar way. As the audience enters the room they encounter members of the dance company BODYART sitting in the seats of the venue. They are typing on laptops and the text is projected to the back of the performance space. You would expect this projection to land on a flat white screen. Instead we witness, thin white strips of paper are loosely hanging from the ceiling. Throughout the performance motion graphics and video is projected onto these strips. The effect is brilliant, as the graphics and video content appear distorted, broken and out of focus. This is very appropriate as the projections reflect the numerous discordant themes of the show.
THREAD blends multimedia and dance to present a modern, upbeat and experimental story. The performance is like two sides of a coin. One side is tranquil and calm and the other is disjointed and strange. The dancers of BODYART convey these themes through movement, dance and physical theatre. The story follows the plight of a girl who comes over as indecisive, tormented and plagued by the past. She is a modern lady, but seems haunted with abstract, but visual memories.
THREAD is a joyful performance that uses dance and multimedia to present drama and tension. It explores many ideas and offers them in original methods to showcase imagery and movement in an exciting and exuberant dance performance. It does however feel short and concludes abruptly with several loose ends that could have been tied up, but maybe that’s is why the show is called THREAD.