DARK Pigeons was in some ways a suitable piece for Rubato Ballet's 10th Anniversary season (in the Samuel Beckett Theatre until Saturday) because it sums up all that is best and worst about this company.
There is excellent design by Elaine Leigh and Padraig McGoran in their use of bleached driftwood; dramatic lighting by Stephen McManus; well spoken verse (of two Lorca poems in Spanish and, English) by Carlos Svit; attractive costuming by Jill Walsh; enjoyable music in the throbbing guitar improvisations of Frankie Lane and Joey Wearen and the fine dancing of Zelda Francesca.
Alas, as usual, Francesca tended to show up the lack of training in others, one of whom could not even walk or stand gracefully.
Fiona Quilligan's choreography had some nice touches, such as the swishing of over skirts to suggest the flutter of pigeon wings, heard at the beginning of the piece, and the use of the driftwood to support the dancers. But the piece was over extended, running to 45 minutes, and the attempt at Spanish dancing might have been acceptable in a play but was not sufficiently authentic for a dance piece.
Signals, reworked from a short piece in the 1989 New Music, New Dance programme, was inspired by six Kandinsky paintings.
This had some quirky humour, an interesting score by Fergus Johnston, design with papier mache shapes by Benedict Byrne and was greatly helped by having live on stage Louis Roden (violin), Mike Nielsen (guitar) and David Hingerty (percussion), who also did a spot of partnering.
Eva Garcia and Dez Allen were a welcome addition to the dancers, but this piece also was repetitive and overlong, particular the sequences with the seaweed (by Lily van Oost).
