The seasons of love
Drowning in a Sea of Dreams
The One Extra Dance Company
Directed and choreographed by Graeme Watson
At the Performance Space until May 22
Reviewed by Gary Boyle
Variations on the theme of love between men and women are the content of this current dance event at the Performance Space.
Drowning in a Sea of Dreams is an apt description of the performance which is at times quite literally communicated by the dancers on the carpeted stage.
Graeme Watson directs the main performance, in which five energetic dancers present the seasons or stages of love through free expression together with some fast and technically complex sequences.
In Watson's choreography, there is an interweaving of another performance (a dance within a dance) in a different genre paralleling the original theme. The same dancers interrupt or dance in harmony with each other in different combinations — an innovation that works mostly as a "comic echo" of the overall preoccupation of high romance.
The variety of mood music and song supports the dance, but especially enhancing is the viola played by Graham Jacups, who is an active participant in the performance.
The set of white cotton screens, beige carpet and white lights combines with the Victorian or Edwardian costumes offering an obvious clean and fresh image of cliched "romance" portrayed for centuries in the visual arts.
Overall this dance event is devoid of any serious or significant political or philosophical substance. It relies mainly on the clever combination of drama, music and (especially) comedy. It has some very good expressive psycho-dynamic dancing. However, perhaps the intention of exploring deeper the dimensions of "the sea of love" as a complex interpersonal phenomenon was neither the choreographer's nor that of the writer of the novel by which this performance was inspired.