Fake operations that cure knee pain, empty pills that work as well as genuine drugs: there’s growing medical evidence that the placebo effect is something very real, and it’s the theme for Clod Ensemble and director Suzy Wilson’s latest work. Many dance/science partnerships feel like lip service but Wilson goes in deep, so much so that the company is hosting a symposium on the subject of placebo at London’s Wellcome Collection alongside the show.
On stage, though, there are questions about both science and art to ponder. Seven dancers perform various “experiments”, asking if how things are framed affects how we experience them. Setting the same movement to different music, for example, immediately transforms the meaning of a stare, a glance or a fall.
There’s the idea that emotions are contagious, that someone simply paying us attention can make us feel better. Every choreographer knows you can manipulate people’s feelings with rhythm, energy, music and light. You can take people’s minds off their problems, bring a tear to their eye, raise heart rates (there’s an experiment here on that one). It’s not such a stretch to believe you could take this to medical lengths.
It’s a functional (and funny) show rather than a transcendent one. Wilson roughly nails the balance between showing and telling, and then bends the question towards what we see on stage. Is this movement real or “fake”? How much does authenticity matter? When you know someone is experiencing real joy dancing, does it make you feel better, the voiceover asks as Valerie Ebuwa rocks her body with grinning delight. It does! There’s only one conclusion to draw: free dancing on the NHS.
At The Place, London, until 10 November. Agents of Change: The Power of Placebo is at the Wellcome Collection on 3 November.
