That Place, Those People

Performing and giving workshops as part of the Cork Arts Festival, John Scott's Irish Modern Dance Theatre at the Firkin Crane…

Performing and giving workshops as part of the Cork Arts Festival, John Scott's Irish Modern Dance Theatre at the Firkin Crane features the work of choreographer Sean Curran. The American flavour of his distinctive, neat style is enjoyable, especially the three excerpts from his celebrated Five Points of Articulation, performed to the music of Dvorak, Kriesler and Leos Janacek.

His unabashed adherence to the grunt-and-sweat school of dance is an acknowledgment of his dexterity; what he does is matched by what it costs. John Scott himself, founder and artistic director of Irish Modern Dance, is the choreographer for the more diffuse ensemble item Hidden Gold, where the complex internal narrative is explored by each dancer. Curran, exuberant and enigmatic at the same time, dances with a door for his own An Average Tragedy; it is Curran again who is the choreographer for That Place, Those People, an extended company showcase in which the interrelated dancers remain curiously aloof. Their poise gives substance to this celebration of the commonplace, written to the original music of Leos Vanacek.

That Place Those People runs at the SFX Theatre, Dublin until tonight, at 8 p.m.

Mary Leland

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