BY MORAG PHILLIPS
[star rating =5/5]
Having already been to see Love Cycle OCD and gasping to see more of this innovative and soul scratching choreography, I had no hesitation in by-passing the protest for Palestine outside the theatre, the police presence and the bag search.
The L-E-V Dance Company is the creation of SHARON EYAL and GIA BEHAR. Eyal, who was born in Jerusalem, danced with the world renowned Batsheva Dance Company. It was with them she mounted her first choreographies and rose to become Assistant Artistic Director of the company. She formed The L-E-V Dance Company five years ago with GIA BEHAR, a brilliant multi-media designer.
What they have produced together is sheer poetry. Her subjects are often intense and profoundly real. It must also be said that each of the dancers could stand alone and mesmerise an audience. The technique and performance is breathtaking.
All shine individually, yet work together as if each were attached to each other by invisible neurons. It’s phenomenal to see.
The collaboration between SHARON EYAL and GIA BEHAR, and the sheer magnetism of this small company of five or six dancers never disappoints. Love Cycle Chapter Two once again focuses on Love. This time the parable is of love that disintegrates and how we cope with the emptiness that is left. The aliveness and passion keeps pulling you back to experience it again within your mind and body.
Once again the audience is treated to an intense spectacle that is dark and powerful; where the music pulsates furiously throughout. DJ ORI LITCHIK provides his incredible Techno music along with strong percussion to form a strong web to support and guide this provocative piece. From the gentle rhythmical clicking; echoing the heart beats within the dancers; to the hypnotic Latin rhythms’; by which the dancers dance sensually as if in a trance. They appear as if in ecstasy. This exalted state is halted when bodies are hit by electrical charges of sound that appear to zap the dancers in various extremities and reverberate throughout the whole body, causing grotesque forms to manifest within the group.
Sweat pours down the dancers back as they seem destined to dance to Le Petite Mort. They have no control over this relentless build up. I am reminded of the Wilis’ in ‘Giselle’, as they attempt to dance Giselles’ lover to death.
The beats and the movements at times suggest Native American and African dances; I see and hear the passion of the flamenco.
Throughout the whole 55 minutes I did not move position the rest of the audience seemed just as still. We were transfixed by the fusion of Dance and Music. One felt the dancers not only fulfilled that which was asked of them but that they also understood exactly what the choreographer wanted of them.
I am desperate to see them again.
