Union Dance will soon be celebrating 21 years of performances, but this was the first time I have seen this excellent small company of four men and three women, and I was immediately impressed. Here is a group who really work well together as a unit, and who have the training and technique to make two difficult works flow smoothly.
The programme is called Sense of Rapport, and the first piece, Rapport, conveys exactly that quality, having been made jointly by all the dancers, with the aim of "conveying the empathy and trust we look for in our daily lives". To slow music from a cello two men rise from the floor, silhouetted in the gloomy lighting, exploring, reaching out, apparently oblivious of each other. This opening forms a kind of prelude which sets the style of the work, and is followed by the entrance of the other dancers, still on an almost darkened stage, carrying lamps which seem to dance on their own. Now we move into a series of uplifting solos, duets and trios, the most impressive by Will Thorburn and Hian Ruth Voon, in which he manipulates her in a complex series of lifts and twists. Finally, there is a fast number for the whole company, ending the piece on an exuberant note.
Silence Disrupted, to an original soundscape by Santiago Posada, is by the currently ubiquitous Rafael Bonachela, whose work is understandably much in demand by contemporary companies. Here he has made a piece that suits these dancers very well, taking them through many different moods, and showing - more than Sense of Rapport - the full range of their capabilities. Once again the lightness of the diminutive Hian Ruth Voon is exploited as she is literally hurled around by two of the men. There is a duet in which one man manipulates the other like a puppet, and a duet for Suzanna Cole and Dee Ovens in which there is more equality as they move through a series of jerky poses. Relationships are hinted at, but they are not loving.
Union Dance will be at The Place, in London, on November 22 ands 23.
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