The Associates: Crystal Pite/Kate Prince/Hofesh Shechter

Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London EC1

4/5

WITH emotions laid bare and the sense of wounds unhealed, Hofesh Shechter’s new dance piece The Barbarians in Love is akin to an expressionist artwork.

On a stripped-back stage the six dancers embody the turbulent vision of the choreographer, with moments of  imperious unity shattered by a frieze of anarchic individualised gestures, blasts of folk dance, self-flagellatory motifs and ape-like body shapes contending with the force of a society symbolised in the elegant, complex control of the accompanying baroque music.

Yet the impact of Frederic Despierre and Yeji Kim’s duet is a counterpoint  to the high-octane trajectory and from this point on the intensity of this remarkable work diminishes as the lights fade.

Shechter’s sensual work followed a  sugar-sweet solo performance by Tommy Franzen in Smile, a homage to Charlie Chaplin by Kate Prince, and a breathtaking performance by dancer Anne Plamondon, in duet with Peter Chu, in Crystal Pite’s fierce and intelligent new work A Picture of You Falling.

Plamondon and Pite’s ability to forge the tightest of  timing between the spoken word and the atmospherics of the soundtrack saw the former take full control of the stage and charge this exploration of a relationship and how it impacts on the body with a memorable fluidity and passionate intensity throughout.

Peter Lindley