Eleanor Sikorski and Flora Wellesley Wesley are a dance double act called Nora. By the end of their show, we find out they are intellectually curious, funny and rude, possessed of chameleon stage talents and a taste for risk. But the evening is also a slow burner, and it takes a while for these qualities to emerge.
In Eleanor and Flora Music, they create a dance version of the Morton Feldman score For John Cage, in which the music’s abstract sounds are translated into movement. The duet is inspired and directed by Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion, who created a version of Feldman’s score in 2002. Disappointingly, the women’s version lacks the puckish wit, the rhythmic sharpness and surprise that made Burrows and Fargion’s duet so engaging. The choreography tonight rarely rises above a formal exercise, and Sikorski and Wesley’s personalities remain dutiful, opaque.
Simon Tanguy’s Digging, a duet in words and movement, also starts dutifully, but evolves into a rich and intriguing dialogue. The women talk impressively about everything from fractals to pornography. But it’s in their bodies that we follow the unspoken currents of their conversation: a staggered, slow-motion phrase that registers the hesitancy of a half-reluctant confession, the choreography of touch and gesture that embodies a sudden rush of intimacy.
The best of the evening is Liz Agiss’s Bloody Nora. Dressed in scarlet frills, the two women romp through a quick-fire set of song, dance and comedy, including a brutal riff about periods, some Weimar-style cabaret, an unlikely hornpipe and a satirical gallery of female role playing. The dancers rise to the material beautifully and, as disappointingly as the show starts, the ending left me very curious to know what Nora will do next.
