I assume we will confidently say that is the primary ever dance-theatre piece in regards to the AGM of a gaggle of medieval reenactors. Of their newest collaboration, choreographer Crystal Pite and author Jonathon Younger – whose earlier works embody the searing Betroffenheit – land us on this leftfield setup, one that provides a number of layers, and the chance to get each misplaced in fantasy and caught in petty mundanities. “Espresso?”, asks one member arriving on the assembly. “ it’s on the agenda that we’ve refreshments later,” comes the officious reply.
The distinctive fashion Pite and Younger have honed sees Younger’s intelligent, fast-talking dialogue carried out by actors in voiceover, whereas the dancers lip-sync and specific the textual content by means of their our bodies. Their gestures have the identical nervy vitality because the script, exaggerating rhythm, giving the phrases additional articulation and bodily humour (there’s lots of comedy within the textual content).
We have now eight characters and an necessary vote afoot, with dissent within the ranks. The scenario is slowly revealed, after which obscured; the bottom all the time shifting beneath our toes. Meeting Corridor dances throughout themes: custom, change, loss, heroism, fantasy, revolution, camaraderie; the porous line between fantasy and actuality, and the will for escape. Whereas the textual content affords readability, the piece additionally lingers within the area of not figuring out, together with what it desires to do about these concepts.
The dancing ultimately expands to push phrases out of the best way, in masterful solos and duets, the dancers of Pite’s Vancouver-based firm Kidd Pivot having the seamless potential to modify gear from sluggish to quick, easy to sudden, or spin in a number of silent turns with quiet virtuosity. Pite’s choreography is clever, stunning and human, however how a lot does it actually increase the story? Do we actually really feel the jeopardy? Does the climax carry revelation, or catharsis?
The craft, although, is unimaginable: the precision of the performers, the best way Tom Visser’s lighting and the sound design (by Owen Belton, Alessandro Juliani and Meg Roe) are utterly synthesised with the motion. And thru that exactness materialises an ambiguous world that morphs between the acquainted and the unusual.
