Ether Croydon Clock Tower, Croydon
Taoub Queen Elizabeth Hall, London SE1
I wasn't sure at first about Angika's Ether, in which, according to the programme, 'the dancers explore the contrast between energised space and nothingness'. In the event, however, this turned out to be one of the most consistently thrilling evenings of dance I've seen all year.
Angika are a neoclassical Indian dance company headed by choreographers Mayuri Boonham and Subathra Subramaniam. Their first piece was 'Urban Temple', in which a quintet of dancers perform sleekly evolved classical choreography to a whip-taut electronic score by the MTV award-winning MIDIval PunditZ. The set, created in light by Justin Farndale, shows a skyscraper city at night, the time is the present, the Kali Yuga or Dark Age, and the five performers are at once contemporary women and the mythological beings who have seen the city rise and will watch it fall. The dancing is impeccably detailed, but its racy sheen and sensual attack show just how far the Bharatnatyam style can be taken and still remain itself.
'Ether', the evening's second piece, is more meditative in nature, and the intricate knotwork of its choreography seems to represent the subtle connective forces of the universe. Despite the ethereality of the concept, this is not a soft-focused piece, and, with the exception of an overextended central section, is structured so tightly its wires sing.
Once again, music and dance play wonderfully off each other, with the icy shimmer of the PunditZ score lending Boonham and Subramaniam's choreography a crystalline edge. Each of Angika's dancers emerges as a distinct individual, each displays the Bharatnatyam skill of dancing with her eyes. Ether is a work of absolute clarity, locking you tightly into its logic and holding you breathless until the end. It tours until mid-June, when it returns to London. Get tickets while you can.
I'm not mad about conventional circus, so it was with some wariness that I made my way to Taoub on London's South Bank. Created by circus-artist Aurélien Bory for the Hammich family of acrobats whom she 'spotted' on the beach in Morocco, Taoub is a more or less random mix of their skills and hers.
As the curtain opens we see three men in white robes supporting three more on their shoulders, all of them with their backs to us. On this makeshift screen appears a simultaneous projection of the face of a young woman, who is sitting at their feet and rapping in Arabic. The tableau holds for a moment, and then the men reshape themselves. This time the projection is of the Tangier skyline. And so it continues, with chanting, shadow-dancing, a woman tossed in a blanket, and other whimsy besides. In one section the rapper-girl runs in the air, with 10 men running beneath her so that wherever she places her feet there are hands to meet them.
Taoub is performed with earnestness, charm, and a refreshing lack of technical refinement, but I couldn't help worrying about the moment when the tour ends and the Hammich family are returned to the beach. Will it be the same as before, making human pyramids for tourists?
