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Review : No Body at Sadler’s Wells – 7th June 2016
Michael Hulls LightSpace (part of No Body) photo Heathcliff O’Malley
The Sadler’s Wells audience turned up with a sense of anticipation of an unusual experience with the world premiere of No Body. The production combines many of the elements of a dance performance – lighting, design, sound and projection, but without the presence of live dancers.
Michael Hulls LightSpace (part of No Body) photo Heathcliff O’Malley
The fully immersive multi-installation experience begins with LightSpace, a Michael Hulls installation that takes the audience onto the stage to be surrounded by large chandeliers with tungsten bulbs, the rather sedate opening has various bulbs growing in power and then dimming. Suddenly the chandeliers ascend to the ceiling until they become distant twinkling lights. The bemused audience are then literally put into the limelight when shafts of light begins to sweep over the stage mingling with smoke effects to create great walls of light moving backwards and forwards to an hypnotic soundtack by composers Andy Cowton and Mukul. Some of the audience were quite content to enjoy the sensation, whilst others began to enjoy the idea of performing and started to move to the music. The lighting rigs then began to move slowly up and down until they finally quickly descend to just above the audience’s heads.
Members of the audience were then given headphones to move into the foyer spaces to experience the music, sound and animation of Indelible which features Nitin Sawhney’s specially commissioned recordings and compositions and Yeast Culture’s Nick Hillel’s visual projections. Dancers appear on the screens like ghosts leaving their indelible mark on the theatre, moving through the installations and finishing in the rehearsal spaces on the top floor suggests that all the performers of the present and the future work with a sense of the past.
The Running Tongue (2015) Siobhan Davies and David Hinton Vision by Deborah Saxon
Next is a film installation by leading choreographer Siobhan Davies and film maker David Hinton’s entiled The Running Tongue which offers an often surreal look at dance and the world made by sound artists, animators and 22 dance artists.
The Running Tongue (2015) Siobhan Davies and David Hinton Vision by Simon Ellis
Lucy Carter’s Hidden installations takes the audience into the hidden spaces in the backstage of the building . With composer Jules Maxwell providing the music, the spaces usually used by technicians, makers and designers come into the limelight with a few humorous touches along the way.
Lucy Carter -No Body – photo Tristram Kenton
Finally we have a film installation by Russell Maliphant, Kairos is a triple screen installation inspired by the film Erebus, which was created in collaboration with film directors Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton. Dancers seem to be in perpetual motion in a landscape of light and dark complemented by a evocative score by composer Mukul.
No Body is a wildly ambitious production that provides an entertaining immersive experience for the audience who are taken on their own mystery tour around Sadler’s Wells. The imaginative installations offer plenty of insights into the creative process surrounding dance performances and seemed to provoke a good response from the audience. In many ways, the virtual worlds of No Body illustrates ironically that live dancers provide something that is not easily replicated, they provide that essential emotional human connection with the audience that is the lifeblood of every successful dance production.
No Body runs until the 12th June at Sadler’s Wells with a number of different performances each day.
Visiting London Guide Rating – Highly Recommended
If you would like further information or buy tickets, visit the Sadler’s Wells website here
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Lucy Carter / Michael Hulls / Nitin Sawhney : No Body at Sadler’s Wells – 7th to 12th June 2016
In a first for Sadler’s Wells, No Body is a multi-installation experience which combines all the elements of a successful dance performance – lighting, sound, projection – but without the physical presence of dancers. Turning the building inside out and taking audiences on a journey of exploration, these specially commissioned works are created by leading composers, lighting designers and film-makers who regularly collaborate with dance.
Lighting designer and Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Michael Hulls invites the audience onto the main stage to experience LightSpace, an immersive installation designed to bathe the audience in light and pay homage to the humble tungsten bulb, with specially commissioned music by Andy Cowton and Mukul, and video projection by Jan Urbanowski.
Composer and Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Nitin Sawhney’s Indelible is a music, sound and animation trail that allows the audience to explore the DNA of the building. Created in collaboration with Yeast Culture’s Nick Hillel, whose intriguing projections create a sense of the many incredible artists who have graced the building and the audiences who have seen them perform.
Lucy Carter’s intimate installations, created in collaboration with composer Jules Maxwell, will pop up in unusual spaces in the depths of the Sadler’s Wells building, shining a light on hidden backstage worlds and evoking new environments in existing everyday ones.
Siobhan Davies and David Hinton’s The Running Tongue, made in collaboration with sound artists, animators, and 22 dance artists is a film installation of a running woman played in a continuous loop. The footage is paused at random intervals to reveal selected frames treated by each of the artists, unveiling a scene embedded in reality, with fleeting moments of strange, surreal and visually poetic activity.
Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Russell Maliphant presents a triptych installation inspired by the film Erebus, which was created in collaboration with film directors Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones and originally commissioned by The Space.
If you would like further information or buy tickets, visit the Sadler’s Wells website here
London Visitors is the official blog for the Visiting London Guide .com website. The website was developed to bring practical advice and the latest up to date news and reviews of events in London.
Since our launch in 2014, we have attracted thousands of readers each month, the site is constantly updated.
We have sections on Museums and Art Galleries, Transport, Food and Drink, Places to Stay, Security, Music, Sport, Books and many more.
There are also hundreds of links to interesting articles on our blog.
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Review – Akram Khan Company : Kaash at Sadler’s Wells – 3rd March 2016
Akram Khan – Kaash (photo Louis Fernandez)
There was a sense of anticipation at Sadler’s Wells for the revival of Akram Khan’s Kaash which premiered in 2002 to critical acclaim. Kaash was his company’s first full-length work with contributions from the respective talents of Anish Kapoor and Nitin Sawhney.
Kaash (the Hindi word for “if only”) is part of Khan’s exploration of contemporary dance and the Indian classical dance form kathak and was inspired by “Hindu Gods, black holes, Indian time cycles, tablas, creation and destruction” .
The beginning of the piece involves Sung Hoon Kim walking and standing motionless in front of a huge painting by set designer Anish Kapoor which is hung on the back of the stage. The blackness of the painting seems to illuminated by the surrounding colours to create a slightly unreal scene that seemed to bemuse the audience before they are jolted into life by the arrival of the four other dancers who appear to a pounding drumbeat score. Whilst Sung Hoon Kim still remains motionless, the four dancers launch into a frantic dance with rapid spins and arms extending and cutting through the air with hand gestures that reflect aspects of kathak dance.
Akram Khan – Kaash (photo Louis Fernandez)
Rather than following any particular narrative, the dancers are propelled around the stage in bursts of energy which allows them to attract and repel each other. The pounding soundtrack by Nitin Sawhney is an intrinsic part of the piece providing an ever moving soundscape that the dancers interpret and respond too. After the frenetic beginning, the pace changes considerably with a slow intense solo for Kim before the other dancers move into more primitive and ritualistic movements. There are moments of no background music at all in which the dancers breathing and footsteps became audible which gives some understanding of the pure physicality of the dance.
Akram Khan – Kaash (photo Louis Fernandez)
From primitive, the work moves into a more modern view of the universe, disembodied voices are heard, the dancers carry out group rhythmic movements to the chants of seeming nonsense. The stage suddenly vibrates to deafeningly loud music and pulsating lights, the black backdrop is bathed in red light to give a sinister aspect to the whole experience. The dancers return to the original movements of rapid turns and flailing arms but now it is the turn of the four dancers to stand motionless before the black void and it is left to Kim to make a series of slow intricate movements before darkness descends.
Akram Khan – Kaash (photo Louis Fernandez)
Kaash is a wildly ambitious abstract work that places enormous responsibility on the dancers, Kristina Alleyne, Sadé Alleyne, Sarah Cerneaux, Nicola Monaco and Sung Hoon Kim who deserve considerable credit for maintaining the necessary skills and intensity over the period of the show. The simple black costumes by Kimie Nakano with swirling skirts of black fabric accentuated the athletic physicality of the dancers with elements that were reminiscent of kathak dance costumes.
Although this updated version is slightly different from the 2002 version, the audience enthusiastic reaction suggests it will be positively received and provides a reminder of the remarkable talent and ambition of Akram Khan, Anish Kapoor and Nitin Sawhney who well over a decade ago began to seek to explore some of the secrets of the universe within an abstract dance form.
Visiting London Guide Rating – Highly Recommended
If you would like further information or book tickets, visit the Sadler’s Wells website here
London Visitors is the official blog for the Visiting London Guide .com website. The website was developed to bring practical advice and latest up to date news and reviews of events in London.
Since our launch in 2014 , we have attracted thousands of readers each month, the site is constantly updated.
We have sections on Museums and Art Galleries, Transport, Food and Drink, Places to Stay, Security, Music, Sport, Books and many more.
There are also hundreds of links to interesting articles on our blog.
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Akram Khan Company : Kaash at Sadler’s Wells – 3rd to 5th March 2016
14 years ago, Akram Khan teamed up with the considerable talents of Anish Kapoor and Nitin Sawhney to present Kaash, his company’s first full-length work.
“Hindu Gods, black holes, Indian time cycles, tablas, creation and destruction” were the starting points for this work. Kaash (the Hindi word for “if only”) accentuated Khan’s quest to build bridges between the worlds of contemporary dance and the Indian classical dance form kathak.
This long-awaited revival from Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Akram Khan, one of the most acclaimed dance makers working today, will be performed by an acclaimed cast of dancers who will help to shed new light and energy on the piece.
If you would like further information or book tickets, visit the Sadler’s Wells website here
London Visitors is the official blog for the Visiting London Guide .com website. The website was developed to bring practical advice and latest up to date news and reviews of events in London.
Since our launch in 2014 , we have attracted thousands of readers each month, the site is constantly updated.
We have sections on Museums and Art Galleries, Transport, Food and Drink, Places to Stay, Security, Music, Sport, Books and many more.
There are also hundreds of links to interesting articles on our blog.
To find out more visit the website here
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