Tragedie

Sadler’s Well Theatre
London EC2

4/5

TO WITNESS 18 naked dancers going crazy as victims of bludgeoning acts of angst and alienation, beaten to absolute exhaustion by choreographic demands, is a real test of endurance for audience and dancers alike. 

It’s only alleviated by the surrender of any preconceived ideas based on the lure of what might appear, at first glance, to be a purely sensual use of the naked body in motion.

Olivier Dubois’s daring Tragedie, performed by Ballet Du Nord, uses the force of primordial dance to construct a series of metaphoric indictments in which life appears not to have any meaning much beyond the visceral.

At the beginning of this confrontational and destructive performance, Tragedie focuses on the body as armature and the articulation of bone and muscle gives way to intensified and violently expressive dance.

Devoid of any lyrical or romantic sentiment this is a hardcore interpretation of the suffering human condition. A collective of moving organisms caught up in a matrix of what seems like endlessly repetitive physical motifs emphasises the strict confines of existence. 

That’s contrasted with representations of the human body as a receptor high on the thrill of chance and malfunction, delirious as free radicals. It’s that image of insurrection against the social order which makes this such a powerful statement of Dubois’s intimations of catastrophe.

Peter Lindley