In Status Anxiety and Piece of Mind, Dance Base presents a stellar double bill which compels and amazes at every turn.
Status Anxiety is a playful satire on interaction in the age of social media and the way it affects our behaviour in the real world. This is a great concept, executed brilliantly by a group of lively and hugely talented performers who engage the spectator from start to finish.
Audience interaction in theatre can be awkward and irritating, but choreographer Emma Jayne Park navigates this easily, cheerily encouraging us to comment on the performance as it continues and using the audience’s awkwardness to make a point about the strangeness of online social interaction. Choreography is consistently fit for purpose as dancers take selfies, poke each other and play out online relationships, successfully demonstrating that the compulsion to impress on the internet has huge repercussions for our ability to interact face-to-face. Status Anxiety has everything you could possibly want from a dance piece: humour, technical skill and great engagement in its themes.
Piece of Mind is a dark and thought-provoking work exploring the mind of someone with sociopathic tendencies and the ways they struggle to function within the constraints of acceptable society. Variations on the same movements allow dancers to portray multiple facets of the same emotions and the different sides of a sociopathic personality, and the sharpness with which each movement is executed serves not only to showcase Jackin’ The Box’s huge base of talent, but also to render the aggressive conflict of emotions.
Use of voiceover is highly effective at telling the audience exactly what the dance portrays and adds a sense of creepiness and angst to the piece. Lighting is brilliantly designed, and works well with the movement to ensure that dancers are appropriately lit at all times. The precise timing of the cues and the way in which they match up with the music is highly effective at creating powerful images and moments of high tension. A brilliant piece, particularly considering its young choreographer and dancers, Piece of Mind is a triumph.
These are incredible pieces of dance; an absolute must-see, not only for dance fans, but for anyone with the slightest interest in either of its themes.
