Dancehall
Project Arts Centre, Dublin
★★★★★
The eight dancers of Luail perform Dancehall with such vitality and precision that their highly anticipated debut, in May, feels like a soft launch. Moving with steady intensity to Andrew Hamilton’s score, performed by Crash Ensemble, their gestures and the soundscape coalesce.
The greatest joy comes from witnessing the dancers’ progression as an ensemble. During their premiere last spring, the new national dance company admirably presented a triple bill that showcased their talent as well as the knack of Liz Roche, their artistic director, for forming a group and choosing other artistic collaborators. With that solid foundation in place, they really let loose in Dancehall.
The cellist Caitríona Finnegan, the keyboardist Máire Carroll and the percussionist Scott Foster enter wearing powder-blue tuxedo suits and oversized black dicky bows, setting the stage for a dance and sound fusion that organically builds. As Carroll plays long, drawn-out notes, dancers experiment with gestures until their personalities emerge.
In exquisite, understated costumes by Katie Davenport that simultaneously evoke today’s streetwear and clothes from a bygone era, the cast fill a stage where crumpled cans litter the floor in clumps. A loose, fleeting narrative evolves, with tied-up gold-velvet curtains adding to the dance-hall vibe.
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Referencing Ireland’s Public Dance Halls Act of 1935, the choreographer Emma Martin deftly explores personal and societal relationships to dance and the body. Although nearly a century ago these laws may have restricted where and how dance could happen, Dancehall makes clear that movement to music is as natural as breathing.
In this restaging of her work, which was originally performed in 2015, Martin allows each dancer to flourish, and Rosie Stebbing and Robyn Byrne first break away from the crowd in hip-swivelling, arm-flailing syncopation. Then begin the subtleties that happen in dance halls the world over, with men and women eyeing each other, wondering who will dance with whom and who will have the confidence to dance on their own.
Jou-Hsin Chu delves into a solo that inspires the others to find their own means of movement expression. Meghan Stevens displays the awkward hesitation felt by many unused to letting their inner selves emerge. Clara Kerr, Sean Lammer, Tom O’Gorman and Hamza Pirimo express themselves so authentically it’s as though music enters intravenously and pulses through them. This sense of dancers becoming one with the music illustrates Luail’s best achievement as a company so far.
How fortunate to watch them thrive as Luail’s repertoire expands. With the stability of being a full-time ensemble they are building a vocabulary that showcases their cohesiveness. Each mover captivates in their own way, and on opening night Stebbing in particular, without taking the limelight, illustrates the pure joy of responding to ever-shifting rhythms. From playful skipping to thumping hip pulses, she appears to be innately propelled by music in the most authentic, delightful way.
In the company of others who also respond so authentically, we witness how one stint in a dance hall makes it possible for perceptions to shift from innocence to all-knowing.
Dancehall, performed by Luail, is at Project Arts Centre, Dublin 2, on Friday, October 24th; at Black Box, Galway, on Wednesday, October 29th; and the Lime Tree Theatre, Limerick, on Saturday, November 1st
