'Extraordinary' dance pieces were a joy

10:46am Thursday 15th May 2008

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Review by Emily Thwaite Bonachela Dance Company at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham

DANCE has a language of its own and reviewing it in words is a very challenging thing to do.

These two pieces, by the company led by prestigious dancer and choreographer Rafael Bonachela, were wonderful and extraordinary.

Trying to understand' the dances (including the title, Square Map of Q4) is probably missing the point - investing everything with meaning and analysing it all is not, I suspect, what it's all about.

So, I'll just try to convey the experience by highlighting some of the impressions and drama I observed.

A major influence was the lighting, designed by Guy Hoare, combined with video projections designed by Alan Macdonald.

A dozen giant light bulbs hung over the stage as if to emphasise the key contribution made by light to the show.

And throughout the dances, light and recorded light flickered over the bodies of the six dancers in varying degrees of brightness, colour and intensity - sometimes, uniform, sometimes fragmented.

One minute, lighting blended the movements, so the dancers appeared as one body; and the next, stripes of light broke them up.

The music, a specially commissioned score by Marius de Vries, also included this flickering' element at times - industrial/mechanical noises shimmered on and off.

Electricity/power seemed to also distort body shapes: the programme notes talked of Bonachela's fascination with a fusion of the human and technology'.

Voices, drums, piano, cello, violin and a church bell alternated with the technological sounds.

Unexpected connections between body parts were made - feet of one dancer rolled along the shoulder of another; a head moving along a leg made me smile.

Water seemed to be a theme in the second piece - beams of light rolled over the seated dancers; and frog-like movements emerged.

Itching, scratching, shaking and limping suggested a contrast between perfect bodies and imperfect gestures.

Voices whispering heightened this menacing feeling.