Magpie

Published Monday 4 February 2008 at 10:25 by Chris High

From the off, this was going to be nothing if not imaginative and dancers Antonia Grove and Theo Clinkard certainly made this a night to remember.

The first of seven dances, Away Now was an elegant and graceful introduction of what was to come, as both Grove and Clinkard filled the stage with intensity and passion.

Accumulation, a solo representation performed by Theo Clinkard, was like stepping into a Talking Heads video as the music of Jerry Garcia is interpreted with graceful simplicity.

With the thumping rhythm of Haino Keiji and the stark lighting of Jackie Shemesh, I Feel Funny Today left an indelible mark on the memory, quickly dropping us into the realms of surrealism as both dancers gave a disturbing, nightmarish performance that at times was as dazzling as it was bemusing.

Classic ballroom came next, as Last Laugh took the dancers back in time and showed their versatility to the maximum, whereas This was quite simply the highlight of the production, as Grove and Clinkard, in a highly amusing way, showed how easy it is to make the wrong decisions in life.

Scag gave Antonia Grove the opportunity to show her dynamism, as the modern, electric tempo of the piece mesmerised the hall, until The Sky Or A Bird, accompanied by the gravelled voice of Tom Waites, provided a moment of contemplation for the audience to take away with them. Overall, Magpie is a brilliant and imaginative production showing us all that the future of British Dance is in very safe hands.