Performance, when it is egoless, is in a league of its own. To strip beyond the point of nakedness, and splay your being bare. Uncontaminated by vanity, Dances Like a Bomb is a piece that sits heavy on your chest, almost unaware of its own beauty.
Two elder figures sat, stripped nearly bare (in the literal sense) against light washed white walls, only obstructed by organically-shaped greenery. The figures hold history in their seat and mystery in their poise. Something has happened but you’re not quite sure what it is. So when they begin kneading the flab, sag and loose skin on each other’s bodies, there is an instant confrontation of age and the parts of it we are conditioned to ignore.
It becomes clear that in this space, there’s no ignoring the ways in which age manifests itself, physically, mentally, intangibly. The signature style of movement, so distinctly Tanztheatre, starts to slowly possess the artists. Movement so unpretentiously conceived, only a rigorously trained mind and body can materialise its application. They make extreme technicality seamless, throwing mind body and soul into the task of unbridled expression.
It’s the understated sophistication that makes it hard to look away, and the marriage of all elements that make the show’s effect hard to explain. So trying my best, I’ll try to put into words how the soundtrack perfectly amplified the feelings evoked by the choreography. Or how the nuggets of existential dialogue, though its bold delivery, never treads pretension. There is something about hearing confessions and reflections from someone who’s lived so much life. Guilt and regret feel heavier, content and confidence feel more triumphant.
Age is not to be hidden, we don’t have to hide being scared of it, proud of it or indifferent. In this elegant response to the “cult of youth” within the realms of performing arts, we watch the physical capabilities of two older performers in awe. We watch the strength to confront the pain of nostalgia, or to embrace the wisdom only collated through the passage of life. The strength to feed the impulse of dance when the hourglass is on its last grains of sand. It is our slow inevitable, and its one that’s ought to be danced through.
Dances Like a Bomb
14:40 @ ZOO Southside – Main House
Aug 20, 22-27
