Ka Wing / Hardie / Kind, Resolution Festival
Loonheads by Orla Hardie © Moving Art Management
Resolution might be one of the hardest things I will review each year. Because really, should I be reviewing it at all?
The works are by new-on-the-scene choreographers, many new graduates, and might not even be in their final form. So, really, are they ready for reviewing? And is taking the same eye to them as a work that has been through years of R&D and toured internationally fair? I spent a lot of time going back and forth on whether to star review my first night of Resolution. I concluded that I should, because for readers it’s an easy tool in understanding a reviewer’s opinion, but I will admit to feeling a level of guilt in my two-star review of the show, in that I don’t want to dish out discouragement to budding creatives.
Resolution is unlikely to ever present a five-star show (in my four nights reviewing the festival last year, only one of the 12 pieces was outstanding – La:Na by Jasmin Saulo), and that’s rarely the point. It’s a playground for ideas, and a way for new choreographers to experience and learn about putting on a show for a paying audience. Most shows will likely only ever be three-star (average) or two-star (slightly below average). But at the heart of most works presented, are kernels of fantastic ideas that have the potential for greatness, with time, the right setting, funding and shaping.
So, with that massive disclaimer, how was my second night of Resolution Festival?
The evening opened with probably my favourite show of the nights I’ve reviewed. Re-do Re-do by Blue Ka Wing was a look at the repetitiveness of life and instantly caught my attention with its jaunty choreographic style and clear narrative: a man and woman meet, fall in love, have children (a comic, witty birth scene where a dancer slides onto the stage as their new child was inspired), and bicker and argue as all good families do. We became familiar with these stages of life because we got to see it three times. Each time, with practically the same choreography, we saw the same family dynamics play out to differing background music (the final round was in silence). What strengthened the work was each dancer’s characterisation of their role, from adults convincingly embodying toddlers, to the mother who became less and less interested in her children each time the work repeated. However, I fear that the theme of monotony was a little too successful. By not changing the feeling considerably in each rerun, the feeling of ‘where’s this going?’ waned by the third repetition. By all means, create work about everyday life, just don’t lose your audience in the process.
LoonHeads by Orla Hardie was my most anticipated work of the Festival. With intriguing promotional imagery of dancers wearing hoodies with balloons in the hoods, elongating their torsos into alien-like creatures, I couldn’t wait to see what the piece was about. Unfortunately, the work struggled to live up to its concept. It started strong with one ‘Loon’ standing still under a square spotlight, as another ‘Loon’ reached into the light then explored the stage with a third — two aliens exploring a new world. Their long bodies gave Hardie a really interesting shape to work with, and it matched her comic style – a series of freeze frames of different ‘Loons’ under the spotlight in different positions was great. However, despite the choreography having lots of variety, I found that it never went anywhere. While work can be non-narrative, each section didn’t have an adjoining thread to pull them together, meaning the final scene where the balloons were cradled by the dancers felt incredibly random. It wasn’t helped by the low-impact electronic score, which didn’t help to drive the work forward. It’s a shame, because this work was the most well produced of the night and, with further development, would not look out of place at Sadler’s Wells.
Equally random was Until the Real Thing by Lily Kind. A mix of different dance styles, from clubbing to Lindy Hop (as someone who’s dabbled in Swing dance over the years, this was a lovely surprise), the joining motif was that while one pair danced, the others mimed something more serious – wrestling, shooting the audience with imaginary guns, showing us that they had finished their bowls of cereal (no really – a good three minutes was dedicated to all the dancers eating Morrisons own brand with Oatly). The theme seemed to be don’t take life too seriously, although this could have been stronger as it did lean a little too far towards the random side. To pull off something weird and eclectic like this requires dedication from all sides. However, I felt that not all of the dancer’s hearts were in it at times or believed in what they were performing. You can dance as well as you want, but to truly make a piece successful, you have to sell it. A shame.
★★
Re-do Re-do by Blue Ka Wing
Loonheads by Orla Hardie
Until the Real Thing by Lily Kind
The Place / 25 January 2025
Press invite (from Orla Hardie)
Part of Resolution Festival. Running until 15 February. Find out more →
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