⭐️⭐️ and a half
I have to be honest. I had to sit with this one for a while.
Time literally stood still as the audience slowly filtered into the auditorium. Five costumed dancers stood in various poses, as still as statues. Impressively, they held their positions for at least ten minutes, looking like a modern day Caravaggio painting, complete with chiaroscuro* lighting, as the audience settled.
(*Chiaroscuro is an Italian art term referring to the use of light and dark contrasts within a painting, particularly in the Renaissance period, often to convey intense, emotional scenes.)
As the dramatic music started, the dancers moved through a series of poses, accentuated by the beat, like a pretentious, overly long game of musical statues. This went on for almost half the dance, and the show had a forty five minute runtime.
I looked over at the rest of my row. Three out of five of us were nodding off.
Okay, not just me then, I thought. I powered through. Fortified by wine (thank goodness for the bar), I persisted, and I’m glad I did.
Eventually, the dancers started moving away from their initial linear configuration, and only then did they showcase some stunning and technically skillful floorwork. There were some impressive lifts and partner work as well.
The choreography and its execution for the dynamic portion of the dance was fantastic. Unfortunately by the time they got to that part, they had lost some of the audience to the zzz’s.
I believe I understood what they were going for, promising to portray “the shifting of the Medieval visual art style through the years to the era and enlightenment of the Renaissance”. It seemed promising, but unfortunately, I felt so much more could have been done with the concept.
As far as costuming was concerned, there was an attempt made. It was clever to name the time period that they were emulating as Medieval vs Renaissance, because after all that is a very broad length of time, with the renaissance era itself spanning three hundred years.
However, I felt that the costuming was too stylised and modern, and that took me out of the scene. An example was the pairing of a corset with a very 90s, asymmetrical skirt.
Overall, I felt that the first half of the dance was too static to be visually interesting. That paired with the repetitive music and the repeating cycle of poses – and the length that they chose to do as such – let the performers down.
That said, this is one person’s opinion, and what is art, if not subjective?