You half expect Bruce Forsyth to wander on muttering "Cuddly toy, cuddly toy" in this witty new piece from Anglo-Belgian quartet Retina Dance. It's a case of The Generation Game meets Dog Eats Dog via Countdown and Survivor.
Inspired by TV game shows, X: is a surreal world where four contestants slog it out on a chequered board in a strange game of human chess. The idea is to cross the squares to win the star prize.
In a hugely inventive solo that would amuse Richard Whiteley, artistic director Filip Van Huffel slips on an invisible pair of headphones and dances to the voices of Countdown contestants. He cavorts and contorts to the rising and falling rhythms: "Consonant, Carol, vowel, and another, and another, and another..."
The action is fast and demanding. Van Huffel's vocabulary is a fresh and unusual mix of abstract moves, mime and theatricality. He bends his dancers in amazing shapes with an intriguing interplay of limbs, quirky balances and exciting athleticism. In mirrored couplings the men hook the women's legs at improbable angles, then pogo them upwards. The quartet are so accomplished they make it look easy.
Accuracy, speed, stillness and perseverance are tested in shifting permutations of solos and duos. The dancers yell out numbers, then make their moves across the board, manically chalking scores on the floor. Arms clamping around his head like crocodile jaws, Maho Ihara rolls across Van Huffel's shoulders, while Gildas Diquero and Nadia Sellier grapple as she struggles to her square. He restrains her, cages her body with his and at one point prises her hands and legs from the floor.
The contestants are trapped in this game of survival without any clear purpose. The movement becomes more absurd and frantic as the pressure mounts, then gives way to total inactivity and silence as they freeze into statues. A loud-hailer drops down from above and they go into game-show banter. Nadia from New Zealand enjoys kick boxing and knitting. Filip from Belgium will let his hair down if he wins, even though he's bald.
Odd, amusing, thought-provoking, X: marks the spot for excellent dance with a strong European flavour.
