The Rodin Project (Salford)

Venue: The Lowry
Where: Salford

The strength and proportions of a dancer’s body makes them the perfect model for an artist so it seems natural that the relationship could work the other way. French Sculptor Rodin’s best-known works are probably The Kiss and The Thinker. The first shows is a marble couple locked in an embrace and the latter is the famous bronze sculpture of a man resting his chin on his hand, while he sits deep in thought.

Both are sufficiently well known that any straight imitation would appear like a parody, but choreograher Russell Maliphant uses elements from all Rodin’s works combined with other influences such as street and contemporary dance to create a truly unique piece.

The first half is meant to pay homage to Rodin’s watercolours, but it also seems to show his more classical sculptures. The stage is draped with white cloth and three female and three males dancers dressed in hardly-there Grecian tunics and loincloths, pull and twist the material around them. At times it is almost painfully slow and the drapes are not really necessary, but the dancers demonstrate incredible control.

In the second half Maliphant quickens the pace with the help of composer Alexander Zeke who accompanies the dance with hurried strings. Capoeira, parkour and the popping and locking of street dance, are all movements demonstrated by the dancers against a set of angular bronze-like surfaces. The clever use of lighting ensures that we see the dancer’s bodies through the eyes of the sculptor; as they turn slowly we see contours, muscles and tendons from every side.

Rodin had a great interest in dance and even sculpted a series called dance movements. The Rodin Project brings this relationship full circle, as the bodies chiselled and twisted into marble and bronze are able to move again.

– Joanna Ing