Reviews

Richard Alston Dance Company (Tour – Salford)

With typical style and verve The Richard Alston Dance Company offer a programme full of surprises and contrasts.
 
The Devil in the Detail is meticulously constructed to move the Ragtime tunes of Scott Joplin from smoky speakeasies to a sun dappled British summer. Peter Todd dresses the cast as if they have just left a production of Salad Days albeit in such a hurry they forget their shoes.

Richard Alston’s choreography develops the shrugs and arm movements familiar from the original dances into a light and carefree sequence incorporating solos, duos and the full ten-member company. This is a joyous dance of courtship and companionship as any elements of confrontation or combat are obviously just foreplay to friendship.
 
Shimmer, again choreographed by Alston, is a complete contrast. Julien Macdonald’s startlingly revealing (and shiny – Swarovski crystals glisten on the fabric) body stockings cling like cobwebs to the curves of the dancers. The company perform as couples, in the sense there is an emotional if not physical bond between them, and examine a range of relationships. If the opening was bright and cheerful this is opaque and ambiguous.

One of the couples is constantly intertwined and touching yet there is an edge to their dance suggesting desperation as much as consummation. Another couple move in brittle unison only really cutting loose with high leaps and bounds when performing solo or joined by a third party in a notably different costume.
 
In a welcome move the first two dances feature superb solo piano from Jason Ridgway. You’d expect this to work well for the tunes by Scott Joplin but Ridway’s flexible and empathic interpretation of Ravel’s music makes an invaluable contribution to the mood of Shimmer.
 
Madcap choreographed by Martin Lawrance is the closest the programme comes to what you might expect from modern dance. The storyline is slight as the efforts of a Mephistopheles-type figure to seduce innocents are frustrated by a rival. As a contrast to the preceding pieces the pounding urban music, from Bang on a Can All Stars, is pre-recorded and cutting edge.

The dance is an ideal choice for a show closer – rapid and dramatic with the company twisting into grotesque poses – particularly Nathan Goodman who performs a spider-walk right out of The Exorcist.

– Dave Cunningham