Ieva Kuniskis's 'Gone to get milk' 2013 Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ieva Kuniskis- Gone to get Milk, as part of Resoltuion! 2013

 

The Place, Robin Howard Dance Theatre
Friday, 25^th January 2013

 

Ending up with a whole lot more than you bargained for… it’s a familiar concept, to which we can all relate. Though, ingeniously, Ieva Kuniskis arranges what is arguably an innovative commentary on the more trying aspects of life, in a way that perhaps hints at something a little deeper than the title might suggest.

Oranges, that we can only presume were never on the list, are unleashed and left to their own device by the first performer as she enters and quickly exits again in a bid to make the toilet, or at least that’s what the audio suggests. The space, prior to the invasion of the mass of oranges, is occupied by only a chair, a table, and under the latter, someone who perhaps remains veiled by the darkness of her ever familiar setting, until the strains that she perpetually masks, eat at the walls of her serenity.

The content of Gone to get milk, which balances fruitfully on the margins of dance and physical theatre, is fuelled mostly by a blend of simple and quirky gesture. Gesture that despite being accompanied by a somewhat comical score, subtly and effectively unearths the feelings that seemingly lurk in the depths of ones being, when strangled by what reveals itself to be the vicious cycle of an unworkable, yet comfortable situation.

Three Intriguing solos by three equally intriguing performers capture what might be the means in which an individual best attends to the hopelessness of his/her surroundings. while the interplay of the three as they amalgamate seamlessly in and out of various duets and trios is made powerful by an overtly stifling tenderness.

Refreshing is that Gone to get milk’s cleverly pitched, and thought- provoking undercurrent, refrains from hindering the comically untamed visual that Kuniskis creates. No element of this piece attempts to be, nor relies upon, anything more than an honest artistic flair of all parts. Which if I am honest, is a little more than can be said about the remainder of the programme.

Review of Suderman and Söderberg’s 'A Talk' 2012



                               

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sudermann and Söderberg’s A Talk as part of Dance Umbrella 2012 Festival

 

Friday 11^th of October 2012

 

The Platform Theatre, Central St Martins, Kings Cross

Now, if not a custom to boundary-breaking performance, A Talk could quite simply be as the title suggests. Even to such extent that it might be difficult for its audience not to question the belonging of such content in the program of London’s biggest annual festival for dance. Yet, it takes no time for Sudermann and Söderberg to justify their artistry…one of the many reasons A Talk is at the top of my list of must sees. 

This dynamic female duo is already seated and mid-flow into their rhythmic, clicky, clappy display as the audience enter and take their seats. The two casually dressed, almost juxtaposing characters observe us as intently as we do them, and still manage to be unfazed nor undone by our waiting for their abstract interaction to be accidentally, or even momentarily broken.       

What has been constructed here is nothing less than a spectacular vocal, and gestural demonstration of our desires to communicate for no reason other than to enter into the game, which is conversation. The duo, accompanied by none other than the passive pot plant, have devised a subtle overlapping between communicational sentimentality and juvenile matter of fact, to which the outcome is simplicity, complexity and precision all at once.

Along with fashionable wit, Sudermann and Söderberg have consistency conquered, for every element of this conversational affair seems to fall back in again, somewhere, and somehow new.

 With humour, satisfaction and point blunt accuracy-what’s not to like?