Tag Archives: Hofesh Shechter

FROM ENGLAND WITH LOVE

★★★½

Southbank Centre

FROM ENGLAND WITH LOVE at the Southbank Centre

★★★½

“the choreography excels – subtly, not in caricature, allowing the dancer’s skills to shine”

The latest work from Hofesh Schecter, From England with Love, is exactly what you might expect from the title. An exploration through dance of England; its long, storied history and how its people use or rebel against it in their search for meaning.

It is an odd quirk that ‘outsiders’ are often most incisive in understanding a place and its people. Schecter was born and grew up in Israel, but moved to the UK in 2002 and has been based here since – nearly half his life and the majority of his adult life. The potential insights this unique perspective could bring filled me with hope for a daring and soul searching performance; particularly on learning that the piece was first performed by Nederlands Dans Theatre 1 in the Hague barely a year after the UK left the EU. Could this be deeply political as well as beautiful?

For its UK premiere at the Southbank Centre, the piece is performed by new recruits to Schecter II, Hofesh Schecter Company’s paid professional development programme for 18-25 years this year drawn from the UK but also Italy, Belgium and even Iceland. As well as choreographing the piece, the multi-talented Schecter has also composed the score including works from English composers – Elgar, Tallis, Monk and Purcell (after whom one of the Southbank Centre rooms is named) – spliced with rock and electronic.

It’s a strong start, with the dancers inconspicuously dressed in school uniforms performing a ports de bras in unison. As the movements are so small and intentional, it’s the dancers faces you focus on – each telling a story of hope and anticipation that slowly turns to steel as if hardened by the world.

Rainfall interrupts the scene, and movements become bigger and more chaotic, with the group forming a swirling squall. Choral music begins, and we are transported to the playground where hops and skips abound. These early moments are impressive both for the quality of the movements and the way in which dancers use the space. Hofesh Schecter’s choreography draws your eye from one side of the stage to the other, following a dancer or two, before being captured by another and taken off again in another direction. Again the facial expressions set the dancers apart with Holly Brennan’s innocent school girl demeanour transformed to loud-mouthed lout particularly delightful. It’s lively staging and a luxuriant use of space enhanced by wonderful lighting by Tom Visser.

But the piece loses its way in the middle. A series of vignettes serving as clumsy exposition took it from subtle to stereotype. Can England really just be reduced to violence, yobs and hooliganism? Juxtaposed with cups of tea, the royal wave and a few feeble keepy-uppys (Come on En-ger-land)? The longer it went on the more meaningless these motifs became.

We end where we began, in form and in spirit. The dancers drift from side to side, unmoored and unburdened – directionless. Without the soundtrack of England’s illustrious history where will they go? It’s through exploration of themes in this way that the choreography excels – subtly, not in caricature, allowing the dancer’s skills to shine.


FROM ENGLAND WITH LOVE at the Southbank Centre

Reviewed on 18th April 2024

by Amber Woodward

Photography by Tom Visser

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

REUBEN KAYE: THE BUTCH IS BACK | ★★★★ | December 2023
THE PARADIS FILES | ★★★★ | April 2022

FROM ENGLAND WITH LOVE

FROM ENGLAND WITH LOVE

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Contemporary Dance 2.0

Contemporary Dance 2.0

★★★★★

Battersea Arts Centre

CONTEMPORARY DANCE 2.0 at the Battersea Arts Centre

★★★★★

 

Contemporary Dance 2.0

“The effect is paradoxically dreamlike, but shot through with the energy of the battlefield”

 

Contemporary Dance 2.0 is a breathtaking reminder of the energy and innovation that choreographer Hofesh Shechter brings to the dance. Fans of earlier productions such as Political Mother will delight in the pounding rhythms and signature movements that the Shechter II Company brings to this latest work currently on tour at the Battersea Arts Centre. Contemporary Dance 2.0 is of our time, yet draws on a paradoxical, often ironic, combination of modern dance, ballet, and traditional folk dance. On the music side, in addition to Shechter’s own compositions, there are deliberately incongruous nods to Bach and Frank Sinatra along the way.

Shechter hails from Israel, where he trained as a musician, before finding an additional calling as a dancer and choreographer. His training in dance, especially in folk dance; his years as a musician, and his commitment to dance as both a political and community based act, show up constantly in his work. Based in the UK since 2002, he has worked with a number of companies before forming his own. The Shechter II Company that performs Contemporary Dance 2.0 is drawn from young dancers aged between 18 and 25. Shechter has worked very successfully with these comparatively inexperienced artists to produce dancers capable of moving in disciplined unity with the high powered energy that his choreography demands. The company has also emerged as a group of dancers more than capable of putting their own stamp on individual breakout moments throughout the performance.

Contemporary Dance 2.0 begins with a characteristically heavy beat as the dancers come on stage. A handwritten card announces Part One: Pop. Each dancer works in tight coordination with the others, but thanks to the costuming by Osnat Kelner, each dancer has an individual, as well as a collective identity. The movements are a complex mix of pulsing, undulating bodies and fluttering of hands, juxtaposed with moments of explosive athleticism. It’s a seamless coordination with the music. The lighting (Tom Visser) and the stage effects often shift between a semi dark smokiness where you can barely see the dancers, to moments of bright illumination scattering across their bodies. Again, echoing the beat. Dancers Tristan Carter, Cristel de Frankrijker, Justine Gouache, Zakarius Harry, Alex Haskins, Oscar Jinghu Li, Keanah Faith Simin and Chanel Vyent dance, often in wedge formations, to a moment where a dancer is forced into an individual statement, a breaking away from the pack. Bodies are rolled across the stage. Even thrown against a potential partner, only to be rejected, and fall away. And just when you are accustomed to the incessant beat, there is an abrupt shift in music, mood, sound and lighting. Traditional forms assert themselves against the pounding modernity. The stage fills with an austere serenity. Bach. Ballet moves. A deliberate parody of the past. Parts Two (with feelings), Part Three (Mother) and Part Four (Contemporary Dance) even parody Shechter’s own artistic past as well as the history of dance. But there’s no linear storytelling at work here. The overall effect of Contemporary Dance 2.0 is not so much a coherent narrative, as an invitation to a trance like state that pulls dancers and audiences alike into an awareness of heightened realities. The effect is paradoxically dreamlike, but shot through with the energy of the battlefield. Finally, there’s another abrupt shift as the dancers announce The End — again on a rough piece of card held up on stage. It’s the last ironic touch as the dancers swing into the sound of Frank Sinatra singing “My Way.”

If you don’t get a chance to see the Hofesh Shechter Company live, there are films and videos you can watch online to get a sense of this remarkable work. But do try and see them live if you can. An opportunity to watch the audience succumb to the same hypnotic rhythms as the dancers — to get caught up in those rhythms yourself —should not be missed. Catch Contemporary Dance 2.0 at the Battersea Arts Centre if you can.

 

 

Reviewed 26th October 2022

by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Todd MacDonald

 

 

Contemporary Dance will be playing at Dance XChange Birmingham on 24-25 November which is the last UK date of its international tour.

 

 

Recently reviewed shows by Dominica:

 

Starship Improvise | ★★★★ | Edinburgh Festival Fringe | August 2022
The Actress | ★★★ | Edinburgh Festival Fringe | August 2022
D Ý R A | ★★★★★ | Edinburgh Festival Fringe | August 2022
The Endling | ★★★★ | Edinburgh Festival Fringe | August 2022
Mary, Chris, Mars | ★★★★★ | Edinburgh Festival Fringe | August 2022
Sap | ★★★★★ | Edinburgh Festival Fringe | August 2022
Waterloo | ★★★★ | Edinburgh Festival Fringe | August 2022
The Anniversary | ★★★★★ | Edinburgh Festival Fringe | August 2022
Doctor Faustus | ★★★★★ | Southwark Playhouse | September 2022
House of Flamenka | ★★★★ | Peacock Theatre | September 2022

 

 

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