REVIEW: Feet Off The Ground Dance - Éter

Fri 22 Jan 2016

The Place

Resolution!

Feet Off The Ground Dance Éter

Feet Off The Ground Dance opened the night’s triple bill with an intense and exciting performance of Éter. Four women journey through a bleak landscape of gently pulsating lights and electrical whirring. Their organic contact improvisation sets them apart from the other acts of the night (which include Maria Lothe/Rachel Blomberg and Unity Dance Company UK). Being an all-female company, dancers Lucia Chocarro, Robyn Holder, Sophie Thorpe and Patricia Zafra prove that femininity and strength are synonymously connected.

Visually, Feet Off The Ground Dance are incredibly exciting to watch. They slip seamlessly from moments of unison to intricate pairings, intertwining limbs and locking foreheads. The tone changes as live musician Panos Chountoulidis’ score intensifies. The women are like beasts. We can see the exhaustion in their pained expressions, as they hunt and chase each other through the space.

Interestingly, it is a non-contact martial arts passage, which interrupts the flow of intimacy that closes the work. The sudden physical distance between the dancers rounds off Éter quite nicely- despite us wanting a little more from the work. Using repetition and Chountoulidis’ drilling score, Feet Off The Ground Dance create a truly powerful work that highlights and draws upon the dancers’ technical skill and obvious sense of drive.



Maya Pindar