IDFB 2016: CORRECTION, VERTEDANCE.
VerTeDance Image Credit: Radek Holes
Birmingham is celebrating all genres of Dance throughout May with the return of their well known International Dance Festival Birmingham (or referred to as IDFB). With a whole programme of dance companies from across the world, as well as some from close to home, I can assure you there isn't anything you should be missing and if you enjoy watching Dance then you have no excuse. I was kindly invited along by the IDFB team at DanceXChange this evening to watch one of the pieces and I was left exhausted.
VerTeDance are from the Czech Republic and since being founded by two dancers and choreographers, plus a light designer back in 2004 magic has been created. They've created almost 20 projects to date, making themselves well cemented within the personalities of the Czech as well as the whole international dance scene. They also have a number of awards to prove their hard work hasn't gone unrecognised.
The introduction to tonight's production of Corrections gave us an opening line in the programme notes of 'imagine a world where you can't progress despite your best efforts to push forward”. So as the light lifted on 7 performers standing in a perfectly straight line looking out I knew we'd be in for an interesting piece (the image had me thinking of the musical Rent’s opening number!)…
VerTeDance Image Credit: Radek Holes
Accompanied by a ‘live modern minimalist soundtrack by Clarinet Factory’ we witnessed the 7 performers move us through their beautifully synced canon, their individual emotions and physically demanding movement that it left me feeling tired by the end! You quickly acknowledge that they are actually stuck to the ground and their movements are so energetic at some moments you could only hope that nobody got themselves injured. There was an exciting balance between the tempos of their movement as well as the breaks of movement in silence which I always thoroughly enjoy as an audience member, its when I feel like we are in full view of a dancers vulnerability and focus primarily on their movement. The performers will also have you laughing through the piece.
The end of the piece was my favourite, it was unexpected, fun and allowed the energy to be carried right through until the lights went down… As the dancers and musicians left the stage all that was left on the stages were the shoes. I was left wondering whether that was the sign of freedom, breaking through the barriers that tie us down.
‘Correction shows that attainment of freedom often goes hand in hand with loss, whilst the lack of freedom to decide can result in relief, devotion and even happiness’.
It is definitely not a piece to be missed.
Disclaimer: I was invited to the performance of Corrections by DanceXChange in return for this post to be published. The photos are credited to the photographer but all views are mine.
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