Candoco Dance Company kick off 2009 with their new works by Hofesh Shechter and Nigel Charnock. An interesting mix of the new and old, a bit of calming chaos versus the slightly unhinged!
We all know about Mr Shechter, if you don’t then where have you been for the last 12 months? With Candoco he’s showing a different side though with ‘The Perfect Human’. It’s a more subtle work that never raises its voice beyond a whisper but retains some of the ubiquitous dance makers sense of humour.
In press speak we have this;
“The piece starts by presenting us with the perfect human and ends with an anxious getaway with helicopter sounds looming above. Apart from its dense character other strong aspects of this piece are the contagious music – which alternates between rhythmic drums and lyrical classical music – and the relentless movement that is carried throughout.”
Nigel Charnock on the other hand is, after 20 years in the dance world, still raising hell with his signature blend of comedy, loud music, bad language and sharp movement and the audience, to their credit, still love it. It’s appropriate then that his work for Candoco is called, simply enough, ‘Still’.
Press jargon describes this work thus;
“In the piece Still audiences get the chance to experience a very theatrical style of contemporary dance. Still is anything but. Nigel Charnock’s patchwork of ideas takes the dancers in a constant whirl guided by his eclectic choice of music. There are microphones and music boxes, knickers and bondage, love and death.”
‘Still’ and ‘The Perfect Human’ are performed by; Annie Hanauer, Chris Owen, Bettina Carpi, Victoria Malin, Elinor Baker, Darren Anderson and Cornelia Kip Lee.
Candoco will continue touring through to April. Their next show is at The Brewhouse in Taunton on January 29th. Full details and more touring info on the company’s tour microsite.