The Edinburgh Fringe is packed with a mini-season showcasing local and international productions. As part of its Danish showcase #Danish, Granhøj Dans company and choreographer Palle Granhøj will present This Is Not Romeo and Juliet (Zoo Southside, ★★★★), a subtle way of making the obvious statement that love is better than war.
Four dancers (two young, two old) and two musicians (a cellist and a violinist) dance in an intertwined way, searching for ways to express their passion, sometimes formal, sometimes wild, sometimes wrestling on the floor with their lips entwined, sometimes chasing each other with sorrow and loss. The musicians perform a staggering performance, intertwining limbs and fragments of Prokofiev and Berlioz.
Choreographers Maria Chiara De Nobili and Alexander Miller's company Miller De Nobili presented “Pack” (Dance Base, ★★★★), a study in group dynamics from a German-made theatrical production that examines the relationships between five men who identify with their skills as dancers. What's striking is how their movements – head turns, one-handed handstands, pose holds, graceful gyrations – express not just ability but emotion and thought. The men touch hesitantly, turn towards each other, assume b-boy poses, comfort and provoke one another. It's fluid, masterful and compelling.
From Australia, under the House of Oz banner, comes director and choreographer Lewis Major, who has worked with Russell Maliphant. That influence is apparent not only in the clarity of Maliphant's Two x Three, which opens the program, Triptych (Dance Bass, ★★★), but also in Major's own work, which shares Maliphant's interest in moving the body under light. Some of the effects are startling, in which a dancer appears to be standing at the center of a pure white bow that spins around her like the blades of a blender. Two dancers emerge from the shadows to perform a duet, in which the woman never touches the floor, wrapping her body around her partner and clinging to him.
“Bodies moving under the light”: part of a triptych by Lewis Major, “Unfolding.” Photo by Chris Hertzfeld
Meanwhile, Dundee-based Scottish Dance Theatre is flying the Scottish flag with a touring double bill as part of the festival's Made in Scotland showcase, opening with the dynamic vigour of Rosell Lopez Espinosa's “The Flock” (Zoo Southside, ★★★★), which arranges dancers in a V-formation and sets off with synchronized patterns of jumps and beats.
The movements are reminiscent of birds – backs flat, arms outstretched – but not too forceful. The way the movements ripple through the group is mesmerizing: the dancers collapse with effort, then slowly regroup, lifting each other's lifeless bodies, bending and falling with incredible control, and finally rushing, running and twirling. The lighting (by Jou Serra) is white as the sky.
“Moving Cloud” (Zoo Southside, ★★★) is a beautiful contrast of interior and smoky darkness. Dancers in smocks, kilts and big trousers twist their arms and fluidly move their feet, crouching and trembling, movements that are awkward, controlled and free, before an assembled cast of musicians from the Glasgow-based traditional Celtic band Trip. Choreographer Sofia Nappi has worked with Hofesh Shechter and studied Gaga's full-body movement technique, and it's clear to see that the mood and sense of restrained emotion is her own.
