Resolution
The Place Theatre, London
**
Resolution, the Place Theatre's annual trawl of what's new and hopeful in dance, makes a virtue of its wildly varying style and quality. Not only does its six-week programme feature performers trained in most areas of dance but its choreographers range from kids fresh out of college to seasoned performers creating work for the first time.
In Wednesday's opening triple bill it was the age difference that proved most interesting. The first two groups of twentysomethings (calling themselves Montage Theatre and Lulu's Living Room) meticulously rationed out their movements and ideas, as if their energy were somehow in short supply. Steve Kirkham, on the other hand - who admits he's "getting on a bit", having trod the boards with the Featherstonehaughs, DV8 and AMP - splurged all his resources on a kicking, swaggering solo that had him flat on the floor and heaving for breath after 10 minutes. Here's a man with fetchingly little concern for either his image or his health.
Kirkham's deviant disregard for his own dignity was evident from the moment he appeared on stage wearing a crash helmet, red boxing gloves, sparkly red tap shoes and the tightest of fake Calvin Klein briefs. He was a one-man confusion of styles, and the sartorial contradictions were wittily mirrored in his dance routine which mashed together tap, jazz, aerobics, ballet, pratfalls and boxing moves. He was wide boy, starlet, diva and bossy dance teacher, and the only factor that linked his personae was their monstrous exhibitionism. But as Kirkham explained in a sometimes deftly self-mocking monologue, he's on a mission to "squeeze dance by the balls" on account of it having become "a bit dull".
And if he needed proof of his argument, it was provided by the two works preceding his. Neither of the two young companies appearing on Wednesday yet deserves critical assessment but their work illustrates the pitfalls of transferring the introspective processes of the workshop directly on to the stage. Both pieces favoured a mode of solemn surrealism to indicate the state of their characters' inner lives; both lingered agonisingly over what they clearly considered to be their best ideas. There was talent there but it was playing possum. You wanted to snatch one of Kirkham's sparkly shoes and shake it at them.
The season continues until February 19.
Box office: 0171-387 0031
