When four of the world's leading choreographers create solo works specially for you, you must be doing something right. Leeds dancer David Hughes is widely acknowledged as one of the most gifted contemporary dancers around, and his debut one-man show, MAP, is one to treasure, not least for his enthralling stage presence and enormous versatility.
Hughes has worked with the major UK companies from London Contemporary to Rambert and Adventures in Motion Pictures; he is a highly focused dancer who performs with great passion and volcanic, yet controlled power. Christopher Bruce, artistic director of Rambert, Wayne McGregor, artistic director of Random, Robert Cohan, ex-London Contemporary Dance Theatre, and Siobhan Davies have all been inspired by his exceptional qualities and the works that they have made for him proclaim his gifts.
MAP charts how Hughes's physical vocabulary has been shaped by the demands of different dance-makers and is also a personal rite of passage. The solos are such a box of goodies you are spoiled for choice, but Bruce's Hurricane, which he terms a pantomime, is a knockout. It's based on the story of American boxer Reuben "Hurricane" Carter, framed and jailed for 20 years for triple murder. The piece has Bruce stamped through it like a stick of rock and it suits Hughes well: fast and tricky, it packs a punch against injustice and is a great vehicle for the dancer's dramatic expression.
Face painted white, Hughes takes on all the roles in Bob Dylan's drawling narration of the story that accompanies the piece. Hands bandaged, eyes innocently wide, he skips in a boxing ring of barred gold light, then switches from swaggering, brutish cops, to all-white jury, then trussed-up victim in commedia dell'arte style. The piece is athletic and punishing and timing is all as Hughes flings away his rope for the next bout of action. Like the jokey Vaudeville of Swan Song, his plea for human rights in South America, Bruce loves to expose wrongs with his own brand of irony. The vulnerable clown he has created for Hughes is another triumph and Hurricane had the audience calling for more.
Every sinew of Hughes's body seems to have been choreographed in McGregor's strobe-fast solo, After Pneuma. The title refers, not to pneumatic muscles, but to the Greek for spirit. It also means genius. Set to haunting electronic blips, this is an exciting, demanding mix of freneticism and stillness, almost a parody of ballet class with slicing arms, angular moves, jerks and deliberately awkward gyrations. Robotic yet fluid, it is full of contrasts and Hughes stretches his body to the limit, as if McGregor has him on strings.
In contrast, Cohan's Adagietto, danced to Mahler's Fifth Symphony, offers intensely moving images of personal struggle. Hughes sits on a chair with his back to us, sinuous arms outstretched. He raises them heavenwards, only to fall back in quiet desperation. The action shifts from staccato spins and rolls to moments of measured stealth. Vaslav Nijinsky is a hard act to follow, but the Davies version of L'Après-Midi d'un Faun deploys Hughes's fluidity and control as he unfurls his body and luxuriates in the heat. MAP is a celebration of Hughes's talent and a tribute to him from those who recognise it.
At the New Electric Theatre, Barnsley College, tomorrow and Wednesday. Box office: 01226 216156.
