Cloud Dance Festival, Hush, Cochrane Theatre

londondance.com - Libby Costello

Performance: 16 - 18 July 2010

Cloud Dance Festival returned this weekend with their most recent, and due to lack of funding, possibly final line up of contemporary dance companies at the Cochrane Theatre.  Hush, the 11th festival organised by festival director Chantal Guevara, saw many companies returning, but new to Saturday night’s line up were two excellent up-and-coming choreographers - Joss Arnott and James Wilton. 

Slanjayvah Danza, an old hand at Cloud Dance Festival, performed an except from Crazy Joanna, a disturbing exploration of the darker side of passion.  Set in the brothels of Buenos Aires, choreographer Jenni Wren developed a Tango/Contemporary hybrid which is so often attempted but rarely pulled off with such finesse.  The tango steps expanded into space as Joanna lost control of her lover and thus her senses.  At times the music played out as traditional tango, keeping the passion at a high, but it was the quintessential English ballroom tango music that desexualised the the couple’s movements, coinciding with the object of Joanna's desire losing interest.  This taster of Crazy Joanna left me wanting to view the work in its entirety - let's hope this opportunity arises soon.

The Milo Miles Dance Company ambitiously brought what was billed as an excerpt of Spartacus.  This was no mere excerpt, it was more like a full length whirlwind ballet complete with 15 dancers.  Although ballet was choreographer Milo Miles' vehicle of choice, the dancers were from a multitude of dance backgrounds leaving a messy finish to the work.  At times the choreography for leading man Benny Maslov and his leading lady Michelle Kane was overshadowed by steps for Crassus (Milo Miles) and Aegina (Julie Lynne), nice to watch but limiting to the narrative.  Although it was great to see some ballet on the programme at Cloud Dance Festival, this one would have benefited from a streamlined cast and more rehearsal. 

Vex Dance Theatre, a Bristol-based company, performed an extract from Bluebird, a piece which gives a voice to the often unheard and largely ignored immigrants and refugees of Britain.  With voiceovers of the fears and feelings of people coming into Britain this work was poignant and eye-opening but more for its interesting topic than the choreography. 

Joss Arnott Dance utilised strong dancers, sharp choreography and fantastic lighting by Andrew Ellis.  Setting out to show the physicality of his dancers, this choreographer reached his goal.  Glimpses of a unique style peeked out from traditional Laban-style choreography, as Arnott appears to be finding his choreographic feet.  As the dancers punctuate the darkness, their limbs captured in angular rays of light, threshhold showed that good dancers can make a choreography great, and with this talented team, Joss Arnott Dance are definitely set to make a mark on the choreographic map.

James Wilton's The Shortest Day contained many theoretical concepts and ideas of a finite time on earth, according to the programme notes, but this did not quite translate into movement.  There were dramatic group lifts to the heavy guitar riffs but not much to gel the music, concept and movement. 

Festival veterans Taciturn, who performed a different work on each day of the festival, danced Grapple, choreographed by Lisi Perry.  Grapple showed the quirky tight bond of this company in a ticking clockwork tale of intricate parts.

The final work on Saturday’s line up came from Pair Dance.  As a reflection on 'our time' (Programme notes) this was a dark sinister account of commuter chaos.  Choreographed by Harriet Macauley, RUSH was a stylized dance of squirming bodies incapable of connecting with those around them. The dancers’ bodies contracting, shoulders hunched and closed, closely cohabiting but living in isolation.

It would be a shame it London was to lose this festival.  In the last few years it has grown from strength to strength developing new choreographers and enticing new audience members.

See a clip of Crazy Joanna on: www.virginmediashorts.co.uk  and further reviews on www.cloud-dance-festival.org.uk