Sometimes dance can invent a world just by putting unlikely combinations of people on the same stage. And they don't come much more unlikely than Christopher Bannerman, one-time principal of London Contemporary Dance Theatre and now professor of dance at Middlesex University, and Mavin Khoo, Malaysian-born virtuoso of South Asian dance.
Bannerman, in his 50s, bears the marks of experience and intelligence on his face, while his body has the unassuming eloquence of one trained in the blunt grace of western modern dance. Khoo, much his junior, appears of fathomless age and gender - his smooth-skinned body is almost as untouched as a boy's and moves with a fluidity that to western eyes looks almost feminine.
When the two men perform their jointly choreographed piece Cast in Stone? they make much of their differences. Bannerman is the centre of gravity who often sets the measured pace of their combined dancing (a two-way fusion of east and west). At other times he withdraws into a watchful presence, virtually effacing himself as Khoo blazes through dance that's almost narcissistic. On occasion, Bannerman is prince to Khoo's ballerina (the latter briefly dances on point), shouldering him in lifts and laying out the lines of his elegant body for our admiration.
During the first half of this 40-minute piece, the agenda between the two is riveting. Superficially it evokes a sexual poignancy - Death in Venice revisited - but it also embodies the see-saw drama of an older man alternately placed as mentor and victim to youth. There is too the suggestion of another cultural story - western rationality in thrall to the ancient exoticism of the east.
During the second half, though, the scenario fails to go any further. The dancers' personalities do not develop beyond the original suggestive premise of their partnership, and the choreography starts to look limited. As a result, the first section of the programme turns out to be a far more satisfying showcase for their talents.
Khoo is quite simply an extraordinary dancer. In the supple Odissi style his performance looks like the embodiment of a beautiful voice - the melody unravelling through his limbs, the breath rising and settling through his torso with miraculous control. Dancing Bharat Natyam he is all glittering planes and angles, dividing and sub-dividing the mathematical rhythms of the movement with vertiginous accuracy. Bannerman, dancing Siobhan Davies's 1982 Swan Solo, defies nostalgia for the dancer he once was by shaping his movement with heroic clarity and pathos. Performed to Saint-Saens's famous music, his swan possesses a humanity that makes an incontrovertible case for the joy of watching older dancers.
***** Unmissable **** Recommended *** Enjoyable ** Mediocre * Terrible
