The annual Resolution festival at London's The Place theatre continues to be a vital incubator for the next generation of dance talent. This month-long showcase, running until 25 February, presents a nightly stream of fresh choreographic ideas. A recent triple bill stood out for its cohesive and intriguing exploration of transitional, in-between states, featuring works by Seirian Griffiths, Qi Song, and Isadora D'Héloïsa.
Navigating Bureaucratic Purgatory in 'Interchange'
The most striking piece of the evening was Seirian Griffiths's solo, Interchange. It plunges the audience into a peculiarly bureaucratic version of the afterlife. A recently deceased man named Michael, performed by Griffiths, is informed by a brisk yet personable voiceover from Sam Booth that he must process some 'excess baggage' before moving on.
Set against a backdrop of muzak and administrative hell, the piece becomes a dance of cleansing. Michael is compelled to revisit the loves of his life, from his mother to fleeting relationships. Griffiths executes this with quicksilver grace, transitioning between contained moments of torment. His movement vocabulary incorporates featherlight hip-hop stylings, including impressive pivots into headstands and near-levitations, his shadow starkly outlined below.
The choreography cleverly suggests the galloping pace of a life flashing before one's eyes, boosted by Griffiths's own coiled musical compositions. While the audacious concept slightly falters as its own holding-bay scenario falls away, Interchange remains a thoughtfully powerful meditation on the emotional weight we carry.
The Epic Thrum of the Dance Floor in 'Archive/Flesh/Echoes'
Chinese choreographer Qi Song shifts the focus to the transitional small hours of a club night in Archive/Flesh/Echoes. Sound designer Sanki provides an ethereal, juddering score for a corps of clubbers who mobilise after intimate whispers and touches.
This is not a depiction of being lost in music, but of fierce, almost ritualistic concentration. The dancers, drawn to the golden allure of Sanli Lin Wang's lighting, ride the beats with the same intense focus shown in a separate scene where they individually seek sexual climax. The work captures the undulating momentum of an epic night out—a collective force waxing and waning until closing time.
Performed with elan, the piece sometimes relies on generic club movement, needing tighter editing to achieve the searing transcendence it reaches for. Nonetheless, it effectively threads the needle of communal and isolated experience on the dance floor.
A Fusion of Flamenco and Voguing in 'Entrecuerpos'
The final exploration of being 'between bodies' came from Isadora D'Héloïsa in Entrecuerpos. Performing her own choreography, she investigates the shared ground between flamenco and voguing, styles she connects through their histories of marginalisation and resistance.
Accompanied by live guitar, percussion, and song from Bryan Reyes, Ago Hernandez, and Carlos de Luisa, D'Héloïsa moves from flamenco's tempestuous footwork and yearning posture to the voguing crouch of a duck walk and runway pizzazz. She finds clever commonalities, particularly in the framing of the arms, and the flamenco percussion strikingly accentuates voguing's angularity.
While the fusion doesn't always become more than the sum of its parts, the piece delivers sheer fabulousness and inventive 'skirt-ography'. Her ruffles transform into capes and camouflage, oscillating between external spectacle and hints of inner conflict.
The Resolution festival continues its mission at The Place, offering London audiences a compelling and varied glimpse into the compelling and varied future of contemporary dance.
