The first time I saw the work of L-E-V, I was floored. The choreographer Sharon Eyal creates such a distinctive world (producer Gai Behar is credited as co-creator, but the steps are all Eyal’s). The bodies are long and lean, always clad in some skintight Lycra (the better to define its ultra-specific lines) genderless in steps and costume. The dancers seem not quite human, moving into AI territory, yet there’s something unsettlingly carnal about it. The movement blends forms from club culture to classical ballet into an arresting hybrid: you will see tight little struts on tiptoes, like vogue dancers in heels; heavy beats of the soundtrack plucking at their sinews to make bodies twang; and hypnotic riffs amplified by the dancers being magnetised together in unison. But with each new show there’s a sense of diminishing returns. Once you’ve got used to the extraordinary movement and marvelled at the bodies before you, then what?
Dark in the House is a programme specially made for the brute concrete space of Bold Tendencies, a former multi-storey car park and a venue that suits the Ballardian dystopia of L-E-V’s world. It draws on material from previous works, newly cloaked in deliberate darkness: black stage, black curtains drawn, dim lighting, black catsuits that turn bodies into silhouettes or make the dancers disappear into the space, the light catching just a curve of a spine or leg. Frames hunch and warp with taut resistance, limbs extend in insect-like fashion, torsos move in jagged isolation, but the human core is hollow. There are moments that hint at the darkness of the world beyond – a dancer clutching their throat, a woman bent double with arms outstretched as if begging – but they quickly evaporate behind intensely blank faces.
A second act brings a crack of light, some colour on the stage, closer proximity to the performers, flesh glimpsed through lace catsuits, sweat glistening on skin. They fall into seductive, looping phrases that become intoxicating. This is a company to be seen, for sure, and seven incredible dancers, but it is just possible Eyal’s spell is wearing thin.
• At Bold Tendencies, London, until 30 July.
