Dimitris Papaioannou’s show at Dance Umbrella is a painterly piece that leaves little to the imagination, while Le Patin Libre deliver a haunting show on ice London’s Dance Umbrella festival has a knack for programming artists who seem to inhabit genres of their own, like Le Patin Libre’s contemporary ice-skating (more of which later) and the Greek choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou’s distinctive stripped-back dance-theatre. Papaioannou made his debut at Dance Umbrella two years ago and is still relatively unfamiliar to UK audiences, but he has been making dance for 30 years and it shows. The craftsmanship is immense and this is an accomplished piece of theatre that creates so much from very little. The stage is an empty slope covered in large black tiles, and contrast is everywhere: dark versus light, black clothes versus pale naked flesh. Quite a lot of naked flesh, as it happens. (Be prepared for penises.) THE GREAT TAMER (★★★★☆) is a work that spins its magic so slowly it seems as if barely anything is happening, but then the 10 dancers suddenly coalesce into a striking scene, a small coup de theatre, something funny or recognisable, mostly imitations of great paintings. Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson appears, for example, the dancers with stiff ruffs around their necks and a body on the slab having its sausagey innards pulled out. Continue reading...
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