Scottish Dance Theatre - Yama - The Lowry

[Jan McNulty]

I was at The Lowry to see Scottish Dance Theatre performing Yama on Tuesday evening.  It is some time since I have seen SDT and really welcomed the chance to see them again.

 

As the curtain opened there was a structure on stage that was somehow lit from within.  It looked a bit like frog spawn.  As the electronic, very rhythmic and very loud music started a dancer gradually clambered out of a hole at the top of the structure.  The dancer was wearing knee-length skin coloured tights and a wig that covered the whole head (including face) and came down to about waist level.

 

Gradually another 7 dancers appeared, dressed identically.  They did not go beyond the structure.  There were groupings in various structural forms and a lot of head shaking to move the wigs' tresses.  At one point I realised that the wigs also covered the dancers faces.  At one stage all eight dancers posed together in a block and looked to me like nothing more than a group of Dulux dogs!

 

One of the dancers went back into the structure and handed out what looked like giant humbugs which the dancers then proceeded to unfold and don - they were tunics that had lots of fringing on them.

 

Towards the end of the piece the dancers took off the wigs and became people.

 

The movements were slow and intricate; physical theatre rather than dance.  As it went along I got more and more drawn into the piece.  At the end all the dancers disappeared back down into the structure.

 

Without a programme (only a sheet with basic information was handed out) you had to use your own imagination to work out what it was all about.  I decided it was about the life cycle from birth to death.

 

I've got to say that it was one of the more bizarre productions that I have seen but it was compelling viewing and the hour flew by and I was completely taken aback when it ended as it felt as though it had only been on for 5 minutes!