Let’s get ready to tumble
Taiwan Season: Bout Summerhall – Old Lab (Venue 26)
When you’ve grown up with someone, shared joys and sorrows, meal times and playtimes, it brings about a certain closeness that can’t be replicated in adulthood. The four siblings of Chang Dance Theatre demonstrated that last year with their exploration of brotherly love and discord, Bon 4 Bon. Now they’re back – well, three of them anyway (the fourth is in another excellent Taiwan Season show at Dance Base, Floating Flowers) – and once again taking their fraternal bond as the starting point.
Bout is also inspired by televised boxing – the posturing, theatricality, physicality, and relationships between those in the ring, from boxers to referees. Then there’s a nod to the rough and tumble of wrestling and the leg-work of martial arts, but ultimately this is a contemporary dance show filled with smooth movement.
The intuitive connection between the three brothers is evident from the start, as they walk briskly around the stage, so close their backs and chests are touching, completely in step with each other.
Dressed in jackets and trousers, they seem illsuited to the boxing ring but this is just one of the many interesting contrasts Bout has to offer.
Air punches from the training gym sit alongside sudden bursts of graceful synchronised choreography; a moment of stillness staring out into the audience is replaced by combative movement where you can almost see them scrapping as children on the living room floor. The dynamic between the trio is as fluid as their bodies, shifting from opponent to protector, bystander to participant. The
music, too, has an eclecticism that appears to have little relevance to the subject matter but brings a fresh energy injection with each change of direction, from traditional Taiwanese to classical to funk.
KELLY APTER
Until 25 August. Today 10:20am.