Robert Tanitch reviews Phoenix Dance Theatre at Peacock Theatre, London WC2
Phoenix Dance Theatre, once an entirely black company, now multicultural, began in 1981. They are based in Leeds and are at the moment touring the UK with a triple bill with ten dancers.
The Windrush generation has been in the news lately. Dozens have been unable to prove they have a right to live in the UK, leading to lost jobs, huge medical bills and even deportation.
Windrush
Artistic director Sharon Watson’s Windrush: Movement of the People celebrates the 70th anniversary of SS Empire Windrush which brought 492 Caribbean immigrants to the UK in 1948. They came because they wanted a better life (there were few job prospects in Jamaica) and the UK needed their labour.
Phoenix Dance Theatre – Calyx
It is Watson’s first narrative work and the narrative is the weakest element. I expected something weightier, something which looked like the historic photographs taken at the time, and something which actually complemented Professor Laura Serrant’s poem, “You called and we came” which was mumbled in a voice-over. The mood is very lightweight.
Calyx
The programme opens with Sandrine Monin’s Calyx which she says has been inspired by Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal. But where is the eroticism and where is the decadence his name and poems immediately conjure? There was a lot of getting in and out of boxes and moving of boxes. A calcyx forms a protective layer round a flower in bud.
Shadows
Christopher Bruce’s Shadows, to music by Arvo Part’s Fratres, lasts just 10 minutes and is over before it has begun. “I am happy,” says Bruce, “to leave the audience to interpret the work individually.” In a programme note, the only clue, he mentions a thousand years of suffering.
A family of four are seated at a table. Occasionally they rise to make some distinctive moves. The son throws the table and chairs about. They get up, put on their coats, pick up their suitcases, and walk towards us and… just as it is about to get interesting it stops, leaving us to complete their story.
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