Time Lapse Guerilla Dance Project
That Was the Time I Stopped Amy Bell & Valentina Golfieri
Dance Company Augusto Corrieri
Being minus two degrees outside and snowy did little to freeze the general enthusiasm for the opening of Resolution's! twenty-second season.
Guerilla Dance Project was first up and reminded us of how tedious travelling around the city can be. Videos showing close-ups of familiar London locations, with people in them awkwardly negotiating the space around the dancers, mirrored what was happening on stage. The company of ten bunch together in unison for most of the piece and balance on or jostle each other in a funny hotchpotch of technique and pedestrian movement. Tracks of music are played then cut abruptly, like the choreography and visual imagery, depriving the performers of ever really getting into their stride. It's all a bit of a mess, which is a pity as some of the performers are really dedicated.
Amy Bell and Valentina Golfieri's duet provides a refreshing blast of humour and two pairs of impressively large, sparkly blue pants. The women sporting sugary pink cardigans, slicked back hair and the famous knickers look and behave remarkably like twins of the Jedward variety, but with more talent. As they enact a palette of tight athletic moves their focus is directed with fierce intensity at objects in the distance. However, when tweaking their costumes or wriggling their bespangled bottoms they gaze at each other with both affection and resignation; a couple comfortable with each other's idiosyncratic ways but also a tad critical. They are comical and bizarrely fetching.
Why on earth do we want to watch a group of strangers performing warm-up exercises and games? Well this is what Augusto Corrieri puts us through; nearly forty-five minutes of it. The group of ten performers who appear on stage together for the first time tonight, according to the programme, get to know each other through voice experiments, improvised solos, massage and follow-the-leader sequences. About half-way through I do become mildly interested in some of the characters as the workshop activities allow a degree of individual expression. But this soon fades with the length of time each task takes to be performed by the whole team. Self-indulgent or what!
Josephine Leask
The unpredictable nature of Resolution! is simultaneously the audience's friend and foe. This year's opening trio of performances proved no exception. Unfortunately Laura Kriefman's choreographic contribution Time Lapse collapsed into the latter category. A video projection backdrop displayed dancers performing in public spaces. Onstage they alluded to these scenarios, interacting with each other through formulaic and predictable movement patterns. The tendency to over perform and exaggerate emotive content edged towards parody. While there were moments of impressive synchronicity between the choreography and music, the dancers' technical delivery lacked the refinement expected from a burgeoning professional company.
Blue glittery Lady Gagaesque hotpants and bright orange cardis set the light hearted, tongue-in-cheek tone of Amy Bell and Valentina Golfieri's piece, That Was the Time I Stopped. The duo charmed the audience with their comedic rapport and humorous movement dialogue, hurling and throwing themselves, and each other, around the stage with challenging contact sequences and lifts that displayed their strong, agile physiques. The intention of the choreography was at times lost, but it was nevertheless a commendable effort for a first footing company.
Concluding the evening was Augusto Corrieri's Dance Company. The concept behind his piece was novel and intriguing: ten local performers meet for the first time on stage to collaboratively present choreography rehearsed at home via YouTube. The result was regrettably disappointing. It embodied both the enthusiasm and cringeworthy aesthetics of an office team building exercise. Each participant took their turn to perform a movement from the sequence, as one by one the other nine participants followed. This format was repeated throughout the mammoth forty minute performance, interspersed with some equally unengaging walking. Redeeming moments were evident when each performer unleashed themselves centre stage, rocking out to Bob Dylan and offering a rare and welcome glimpse into the personalities previously buried beneath the tedious sequences.
Fiona Campbell
Laura Kriefman 'Time Lapse'
Amy Bell & Valentina Golfieri 'That Was the Time I Stopped'
Augusto Corrieri 'Dance Company'