National Dance Company Wales Spring 2015 (Venue Cymru, Llandudno)

Tuplet

National Dance Company Wales's 2015 Spring Programme shares two pieces that were also performed during their 2014 tour, but luckily I got to see three brand new routines when they visited Llandudno this week. The three pieces are very different and serve to satisfy an audience with eclectic tastes in modern and contemporary dance.

It kicks off with the superlative Walking Mad, a sprawling set-piece choreographed by Swede Johan Inger which imaginatively and wittily uses a garden fence to help move the performance along.

A total of nine dancers interact with the fence, slamming into it with force or elegantly rolling along it, climbing over it, and darting in and out of the various gates which open within it, all to the soundtrack of Ravel's stunning Bolero. It's a fantastic device which allows the dancers to really show off their range of skills, from traditional dance moves all the way through to the more athletic, modern moves. The fence even allows room for slapstick, and I loved the touches of Chaplin and Keaton which topped and tailed the performance - reaching across stage for a bowler hat never seemed funnier.

There's much fun to be had in Walking Mad, right from the start when a lone bowler hatted dancer jumps onto stage after walking through the auditorium. There are poignant moments too, notably when the music stops suddenly and our dancer seems to have disappeared into the shadows of the folding fence. It's a powerful and highly entertaining routine which really gets the showcase off to a strong start.

They Seek to Find the Happiness
They Seem

This is followed by the slower, much more traditional and balletic They Seek to Find the Happiness They Seem, a touching duet between Matteo Marfoglia and Natalie Corne. Choreographed by Australian Lee Johnston, it explores that unique relationship, that inner world, that exists between couples and individuals, and the precision shown in the performance makes it obvious that Marfoglia and Corne have worked hard on this very personal work.

Described as a "jigsaw puzzle of reconfigured snippets from famous film dance partnerships", this beautiful piece demonstrates how two people can feel so together and in unison, but at other times so disconnected. Anybody in a relationship of any standing can surely relate to that. The music, an amalgam of several works by Max Richter, is heartbreaking.

Finally there is the challenging but breath-takingly creative Tuplet, choreographed by Alexander Ekman, which gets its European premiere as part of NDC Wales's 2015 tour. This 18-minute piece is all about rhythm and how rhythm is everywhere in our lives, even the places you don't think you'd find it: rhythm is in your neighbours making love next door or in the urgency of CPR.

Starting, rather like Walking Mad, by breaking the fourth wall, we watch as theatre technicians busy themselves on the stage, setting up and adjusting the lights, while first one, then two, then a full six dancers make their variously creative ways onto stage to perform "in the round" of a series of white squares.

Taking its cue from the dancers' own vocalised rhythms, and call-and-response routines to music and sound from Mikael Karlsson, this is a very humorous smorgasbord of styles, but one particular icon of the popular dance art form stands out for me as an influence, whether consciously or not. The music videos of Michael Jackson must surely inform, in some way, the use of vocal rhythms, the silhouetting of a lone performer against a blanket of light, even the use of chalk dust erupting in little clouds from the dancers' hair. Anybody who has seen the choreography in Jackson's Smooth Criminal (the slow bit in the middle that builds to the reprise), or Dangerous (sound accentuating movement) and most of all the short film Ghosts will recognise much of the disciplines used here. And for that reason among many, I loved Tuplet.

The section where they dance their names (the best way I can describe it!) is impressive; it must have taken a lot of rehearsal and repetition to get that right! Plus, there's a lovely bit where everybody moves to a Ronnie Scott version of Fly Me to the Moon, sung by Victor Feldman. Simply stunning, and after a beginning which has you wondering if it's actually started yet, the denouement is highly satisfying.

Three very different pieces but all of them performed with such conviction, humour and poignancy. NDC Wales is very proud of its 2015 programme, and they have every right to be. On the basis of these three routines, I'd say it was one of their strongest trios to date.

The stats
Walking Mad
Choreographer: Johan Inger (assisted by Carl Inger)
Music: Maurice Ravel and Arvo Pärt
Performers: NDC Wales company (Josef Perou, Camille Giraudeau, Matteo Marfoglia, Mathieu Geffré, Chris Scott, Natalie Corne, Àngela Boix Duran, Elena Thomas, Joseba Yerro Izaguirre, Declan Whitaker)
They Seek to Find the Happiness They Seem
Choreographer: Lee Johnston
Music: Max Richter
Performers: Matteo Marfoglia, Natalie Corne
Tuplet
Choreographer: Alexander Ekman
Music: Mikael Karlsson, Bart Howard, Kaye Ballard, featuring Victor Feldman
Performers: Chris Scott, Josef Perou, Mathieu Geffré, Joseba Yerro Izaguirre, Camille Giradeau, Natalie Corne
Performed at Venue Cymru, Llandudno, March 3, 2015. Other works performed as part of the NDC Wales Spring Tour 2015 include Mythology and Purlieus (nominated for Best Sound/ Lighting in the 2015 Wales Theatre Awards).

Links

Spring Tour 2015 on NDC Wales website (retrieved Mar 4 2015)
Johan Inger's website (retrieved Mar 4 2015)
Lee Johnston's Twitter (retrieved Mar 4 2015)

Alexander Ekman's website (retrieved Mar 4 2015)

They Seek to Find the Happiness They Seem clip (retrieved Mar 4 2015)

Tuplet clip (retrieved Mar 4 2015)

Interview with Alexander Ekman (retrieved Mar 4 2015)