Showing @ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 18 May only
The language of dance is still a fairly young and constantly evolving concept in modern practice; how dramaturgy can be fused with choreography is a thorny issue for contemporary professionals. It’s this interdisciplinary form which Colette Sadler approaches in her new work with Stammer Productions, but fails to explore the diverse experiences it can reveal.
Yohei Yamada, Assaf Hochman and Maxwell McCarthy enter to create strange hybrid creatures with their hands and arms which appear independent of their bodies; external objects which are conscious and almost human-like as they threaten to overtake their owners. It’s reminiscent of the purposeful choreography of Editta Braun’s Luvos and the communication with objects found in Le Vélo Théâtre’s Appel d’Air – both staged at this year’s Manipulate Festival.
Where these shows delve quite profoundly into the nature of language in performance however, Sadler’s only hints at the fear and uncertainty of objecthood, the kind of robotic processes which have given birth to a reified world afraid of (and controlled by) its machine and computer counterparts. Violent, jagged hand movements and jerks produce menacing gestures which the three performers link together with some skill, but it feels repetitive and often frustrating. Where Luvos challenged how we perceive the body as an entity, I Not I manages to separate it but offers no real commentary on its position. Though the show is assisted by a rusty, ticking soundtrack which effectively symbolises mechanisation and a kind of emotionless void, the point feels stale and static, offering neither a new observation on our relationship with the Self, nor using dance and physical theatre to their true potential.