Dance
Sans Etiquette (ICA, till 31 March) Spring Loaded (The Place, till 31 March)
Chicken feathers
Deirdre McMahon
In its inaugural season, Sans Etiquette, which promises to be an annual event, features choreographers who have pre- viously worked within companies and who have now moved away to create individual work which reflects their own strengths, visions and personal vocabularies of move- ment.
Karin Vyncke is a Belgian choreog- rapher who has worked in Germany and with Jerszy Grotowski in Poland. 'Health' warnings have become commonplace in the arts in recent years. Still, the discreet statement on the ICA noticeboard about Vyncke's Sous les Vetements Blancs was certainly unusual: 'This production is not advisable for asthma sufferers.' One soon realised why. The stage was fenced off by chicken-wire. At the beginning of the piece four men appear and start strewing the stage with feathers to the strains of Vival- di's Stabat Mater. They then walk towards the wire, open their jackets and reveal blood-stained shirts. They return to the back of the stage and throw dead birds at the wire. Later, two women (Vyncke and Laura Girotto) disembowel two old sofas Which are also stuffed with feathers.
Sous les Vetements Blancs is described as a young woman's battle to exorcise a haunting memory and achieve peace of mind. The theme, and the rather brutalist imagery, reflect the pervasive influence of German choreographer Pina Bausch who has been called the high priestess of feminist paranoia. The feathered stage recalls the earth-caked floor of Bausch's Rite of Spring. There is also the same emphasis on lumpy gestures and the mono- tonous repetition of a single motif, in this case the women sitting with their legs wide apart, lifting up their dresses. Bausch isn't much interested in dance and this is re- flected in her company (she would prob- ably regard this as a compliment), but Vyncke is a better dancer than her Baus- chian content would have us believe. In the second half there is a section for her and Laura Girotto where the stage suddenly pulsates with energy, Girotto small and petite, Vyncke rangy and athletic. It soon fizzles out.
Roxane Huilmand, also Belgian, pre- sented an ambitious solo programme, Cap- ricieuse, set to Paganini's 24 Caprices for violin. Huilmand has previously worked with Michele Anne de May and Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker and her choreography is concerned with issues of power. Capricieuse is a power struggle all right — between Huilmand and Paganini. Huilmand has a striking appearance, a pale face topped with red hair. Her movement has that casual quality one associates with Trisha Brown but there is a passiveness about it which gives the impression that Huilmand is being impelled around the stage by some external force. The ICA stage feels claustrophobic and Huilmand exploits that sense of constriction, shuffling in short bursts of movement. As a perverse response to the dynamics of Paganini's music, this soon loses its novelty and the momentum begins to flag. By the end we never want to hear another Caprice.
Lea Anderson, who also featured in the Sans Etiquette season, is one of the most popular choreographers working in British contemporary dance. Last year she choreographed the British section of the bicentennial parade in Paris. The two companies she created, the all-female Cholmondeleys and the all-male Feather- stonehaughs, performed within a few days of each other at the ICA and The Place. Flesh and Blood, for the Cholmondeleys, was first seen during last year's Dance Umbrella and is in the running for the Bagnolet competition this year. It deals with themes of obsession, fanaticism and introspection throughout history. Flesh and Blood is an unusually dark and ponderous work for Anderson. This darker tone was evident in Flag, the most discon- certing aspect of which was the anonymity which enveloped the dancers in some of the numbers.
The Featherstonehaughs, at The Place as part of the Spring Loaded season, were a much better show. The six men with their strongly contrasting personalities are great performers. The only number that doesn't come off is Surabaya Johnny whose power- ful music and lyrics rather swamp Ander- son's choreography.
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