deGENERATION

Published Friday 20 October 2006 at 15:55 by Thom Dibdin

Sinuous and muscular, Hofesh Shecter’s choreography is charged with emotion and fluid energy. Which, coupled with his ear and eye for the overtly dramatic in both music and lighting, makes for an intense programme when Cult, his 2004 commission for The Place Prize, and Fragments, his choreographic debut, are joined with his new work Uprising.

After the pitting of a female trio against a male trio in Cut and the male-female duet in Fragments, Uprising is a piece for seven male dancers. Against the loud clanking of a harsh techno beat - a modernistic version of the steam-hammer thud of the Blues - the dance explores elements of masculinity which seem to predate, in emotional terms, the interpersonal elements of the previous two dances.

Exploding from behind Ldee Curran’s forward-pointing lights at the rear of the stage, the dancers find a stationary point in which to jive, as if in the nightclub, in a meter-wide strip at the front of the stage. It’s dramatic stuff - if a trifle wet for the front row - and the ensuing intermingling duets, trios and ensemble moves seem to illustrate an evolving masculinity, from crouching simian-like movement to a celebratory punching of the air.

It is by no means perfect. A long central interlude in which the seven explore the rituals of male bonding destroys the rhythm of the whole and seems to serve no purpose. But Shecter’s command of ensemble dance, particularly his balancing of changing trios and quartets within the septet, shows a choreographer with the wherewithal to make great things.