Americana (Tour – Oxford)

In Americana, The Yorke Dance Project presents three short dance pieces inspired by the Land of the Free. Post Etiquette is an amusing morsel on manners; Home on the Range is a fairly rotten piece on American symbolism that lacks any real ideas. Cowboys? Line-dancing? Guns? Yellow Taxies? A list of the most obvious cultural references? Is this the best you can do?

By contrast the final piece, City Limittless, is a real gem. Loosely inspired by Kerouac, Ginsberg and the Beats, City Limitless is elegant, witty, emotional and smart. The spirit of rebellion and freedom is perfectly captured by Yorke-Edgell’s chorography, combining period moves with modern dance. Of all the performers, Caroline Lynn in particular is absolutely luminous between the black walls of the BT. The twisting free-association of Kerouac’s narration of On the Road and Ginsburg’s A Supermarket in California are present in the soundtrack and a film of slowly evolving landscapes shot by David McCormick provides the backdrop.

The end result is tremendously lovely and a lot of fun. The same exuberance and intoxication that one gets from first reading the Beats as a teenager comes screaming off the stage. It may have only lasted around a half and hour but I could have stayed there all night. I’ve never felt more sick for a return to the USA as when I walked out into the street.

– Josh Tomalin