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The Tempest Replica
Sadler’s Wells Theatre
4/5
CHOREOGRAPHER Crystal Pite has made a stunning start as the latest associate artist at Sadler’s Wells. Her intricate integration of of audio-visual technology within performance is sure to create a ripple effect throughout the contemporary dance scene.
What immediately grips the senses in The Tempest Replica created in collaboration with the Kidd Pivot company — aside from the striking costumes and cool treatment, deconstruction and then reconstruction of elements from Shakespeare’s play — is the tight synchronisation between the seven dancers and the fine detail of the sound design and clever use of projection technology.
Throughout, images frequently hit a precise spot on fast-moving bodies with pinpoint accuracy and together with sound effects occurring exactly at the right moment the production knowingly takes on techniques associated with cinema to intensify the experience of dance.
This is multi-sensory live art on a large scale yet the lasting wow-factor is Pite’s distinctive choreography, a stylish combination of characterisation, physical theatre and dance motifs full of emotionally charged gesture, speed and physical exertion.
Among the performances, the crushing anguish of Yannick Matthon’s portrayal of Antonio startles as does the menace and brutality in Bryan Arias’s Caliban.
In duet Eric Beauchesne as Prospero and Sandra Marin Garcia as Ariel showed total trust with one another during their fast-paced sequences.
Delicate, then more violent, vocabularies of movement underpin this whole production as the performers inhabit a thrilling place where the dance plainly takes over.
Peter Lindley