Body language

The Dance Umbrella season has always been a unique window on international choreography, as well as a great platform for national talent. This year is no different, and the number of international visitors is delectably high. As always, blockbusters share the season with smaller but no lesser entities.

Last week I went to see two from the latter category and was utterly intrigued, though not equally impressed. Those who have faithfully followed Phoenix Dance Company for the past decade might recall the Portuguese performance-maker Rui Horta and his somewhat mind-probing aesthetics. His Talk Show is a rather dramatic development of the formulae first seen and applauded in Phoenix’s performance of Can You See Me. As the title suggests, spoken words, and quite a lot of them, are one of the new creation’s main ingredients. They bombard, caress, lull the viewer, while contrasting with, accompanying and complementing the now physically powerful, now more lyrically paced danced action.