Skin

Published Wednesday 5 March 2008 at 11:35 by Peta David

The two halves of this show could not be more contrasting in style and content. The first piece, Blind Trip, choreographed by Akiko Kitamura from the Leni-basso Dance Company of Japan, is blisteringly white, sterile and unemotional. The dancers are put into boxes of white light where their movements become restrained and restricted, never quite going anywhere and never intentionally connecting with each other. The soundtrack is relentless and jarring on the ears - at one point I had to put my fingers in my ears. ACE Youth Company performed an excellent piece called Ubuntu Bam, an energetic and visually pleasing piece which was well performed with some great young dancers making their mark.

The second piece in total contrast to the bright white box of the first piece is choreographed by Vincent Mantsoe from Soweto, South Africa. This piece called Letlalo (meaning Skin) has a warm, vibrant resonance to it, full of emotion and expression, and the dancers really look as if it is part of them, not just executing the steps. It is energetic and magical in places but the lighting is irritatingly low so that the dancers some in black costumes completely disappear, which rather defeats the object. Also the dancers appear to spend much of the choreography dancing to the back wall, so that the audience cannot see the dancers’ faces, which after all is the most expressive part of the body.