Made To Measure

Rui Horta, the Portuguese choreographer of Dance Theatre of Ireland's double-bill, sets up a problem for the company by setting…

Rui Horta, the Portuguese choreographer of Dance Theatre of Ireland's double-bill, sets up a problem for the company by setting Wolfgang Bitte . . . to the score of The Magic Flute.

A homage to Mozart's suffering and talent, it uses the corps of dancers in a series of interwoven connections which break either into chaos or pattern.

But with The Magic Flute at full tilt on the speakers, the dancing is little more than a distraction, prompting only the question of whether dance in Ireland will ever again be performed to live music.

Commissioning bodies may be addressing this very issue, now that the country is being washed by a tide of money. Dance and music go together and live dance and live music were once - and should be again - synonymous.

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Dancer Olwen Grindley has the gift of bringing large flowing movements down to minute adjustments of the body's parts in Pocket Ocean (Rui Horta and Anton Skrzypi ciel), while the stylish "Ordinary Events" engages the company in a series of impressive gymnastic episodes.

Although the music is thumping timpani from Les Tambours des Bronx, the essence of Rui Horta's work here is a shared intense tempo depending - justifiably - on the dancers' internal rhythms.

Made To Measure transfers to the Town Hall Theatre, Galway tonight and to The Tivoli, Dublin, next Tuesday.

Mary Leland

Mary Leland is a contributor to The Irish Times specialising in culture