Sardoville Dance Theatre and DeNada Dance Theatre double bill at The Lowry

[Jan McNulty]

I was at the Lowry tonight for a double bill shared by Sardoville Dance Theatre and DeNada Dance Theatre.

 

The evening opened with Sardoville's A Matter of Impression choreographed by Luca Silvestrini.  When we went into the auditorium 3 dancers were warming up on the stage.  One of them came to the front and explained that the dancers' warm up was the equivalent of a natter around the drinks machine in an office.  Basically the 3 dancers talked us through the piece.  The first section was about themselves, the quality of listening (including asking the audience to close their eyes and listen), and what we were seeing.  The second section was a story about 2 boys.  There was some gorgeously fluid choreography for the three dancers (2 men and 1 woman) and I admired how they could talk and dance simultaneously.

 

For me the highlight of the evening was DeNada's O Maria, which is an Almodovar-ian take on food fetishes, religion, transgenderism and bondage.  There is lots of black humour and some gorgeous choreography for the three dancers.  The very wonderful Marivi da Silva is holding a man hostage and force feeding him.  The Virgin Mary appears (danced with incredible expressiveness by Fabio Dolce) and reveals that the hostage is a woman (the gorgeous Antonette Dayrit).  Things get very confused when the ham puts in an appearance!    It's great fun but has a serious undertone about sexuality, transgenderism and catholicism.  Artistic Director Carlos Pons Guerra has a boundless imagination and this is very compelling dance theatre.

 

It was a very enjoyable and thought provoking evening but I do wish we could have seen the full Ham & Passion triple bill.

 

I can't wait to see DeNada's next venture!