Thursday 24 January 2013

Deadly 7 - review

Written by: Anna Jones (@Now4567Anna)

Etcetera Theatre, London

***

A beguiling infusion of film, music and dance makes up Open Hand Productions current project Deadly 7, currently playing at Etcetera Theatre for a handful of nights.

The concept is straightforward. The seven deadly sins are conceptualised as seven different dance pieces, performed by six talented dancers, and are accompanied by music from talented duo ‘Decibel Siblingz’ (Kristian Revelle and Federico Marin). The first two sections of Sloth and Pride appear to link together; as dancers move from dozy floor work to energised locking and popping the scene moves from an extended lie-in to a frantic office environment ruled over by a prideful manager

Director Amy Revelle (founder of Open Hand Productions) has ensured that the piece demonstrates clearly which deadly sin we are watching, but sometimes these portrayals go a little too much for the obvious situation, dancers in green masks during envy for example. At times dancers work too hard at demonstrating the emotion, and a little more variety in the quality of movement would add to this piece; sometimes it is like we have seen anger played out in three different ways, rather than three separate deadly sins.

Videographer Yvoni Lada has captured the dancers’ movements well to create scene introductions but if this were to be developed further, it would be interesting to see how media could be further incorporated. Well-chosen pieces of recorded voiceover also provide a prelude to some sections and there is also scope for this to be developed.

Comendation should go to all six dancers who are seriously talented: Kayi Ushe, Stuart Vincent (Dance Captain), Katerina Georgiou (Choreographer), Tara Ferguson (Choreographer), Caleb Lloyd Hunte(Choreographer) and Luke Chopra ‘Chops’ (Choreographer). The finale piece ‘Gluttony’ features all dancers, and is a witty showcase of talent. There is much scope for further development in order to take this piece from a 45min bite-sized chunk to something bigger, and Open Hand Productions are certainly a company to pay attention to. 

This production was part of the PNPA festival which runs throughout January.
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