Dance: Thierry Baë: Journal d’inquiétude, The Place: Robin Howard Dance Theatre; Shen Wei: Connect Transfer, Barbican
So far, the two most thought-provoking performances I have seen in this year’s Dance Umbrella have both been French. But Compagnie Beau Geste’s duet between a man and a digger, which I reviewed enthusiastically two weeks ago, and Thierry Baë’s Journal d’inquiétude (Diary of Disquiet), which I saw last week, could not be more different. In Baë’s Journal there are no special technological devices or ideas, apart from a screen and a kind of fly-on-the-wall film. And yet both performances stood out for the same irresistible theatrical vibrancy.
Divided into three sections, Baë’s Journal is a now comic, now unnerving exploration of the labours a dance-maker has to go through when creating a piece. Age, health, bureaucracy and friendship are the issues addressed, ridiculed and sadly pondered in a narrative that keeps the viewer glued to the seat, waiting to see how it will all finish.
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