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Fugue in Two Colors

 
Stephanie Green Review by Stephanie Green 2 Published: 12 Aug 2021 Dance Base at ZOOTV Show Dates: 6 Aug 2021-6 Aug 2021

If Carl Knif’s Fugue in Two Voices is a joke, then it’s a dud. Having seen his excellent, visceral and arresting Red in 2016 at the Edinburgh Fringe, I was expecting a memorable piece at the very least. Set to Shostakovitch’s powerful preludes and fugues for piano, it aims to juxtapose these strict forms to seven ‘rambling’ dancers. The word ‘rambling’ sets off warning bells. It’s as if Knif has decided to be completely different to Red which is fine as long as it’s interesting but sadly this tedious show at 70 minutes feels interminable.

Random, of course, is the key word.

Knif’s liking for improvisation-based choreography demonstrates all the pitfalls. One wonders if it is actually taking place in performance: paired dancers imitate each other's movements, one slightly behind the other as if not knowing what’s coming next, one female dancer stumbles at one point, the male with long blonde ponytail lying on a table nervously checks the edge as if he fears he may fall. This imprecision characterises the show.

It feels like Knif has abnegated all responsibility as a choreographer. The ‘surprise’ entry of dancers from the front row of the stage is such a cliché only high school students would think it original. Dancers square off crouched like sumo wrestlers or swing away to just walk randomly about the stage. There are no arresting moments or fine lines. It is just a series of instagram images, unoriginal and at times, like anoraks used as matadors’ capes, bewilderingly random.

Random, of course, is the key word. Random objects are introduced: a mic stand, a long blonde wig, a tree branch, a mirror etc, etc. Even the steel poles, which could have led to some interesting patterns and shapes, left me worried that someone was going to be unintentionally impaled. Scrolling through the internet afterwards I discovered an interview in Amusa (21.09.21) where Knif says he wants the dancers and music to ‘carry the work between wild, hilarious, precise and thoughtful expression’. So why doesn’t the blurb say this? Why isn’t it clear in the performance this is supposed to be playful? Even if I knew this beforehand, I don’t think I’d find the show any more fun. I feel like a viewer seeing Duchamp’s urinal (signed R.Mutt) in an art gallery for the first time and wondering if it is we the viewers who are taken for mutts.

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The Blurb:

Discovering the ancient relationship between music and dance, Fugue in Two Colors invites you to explore the expressive power of movement. Using the strict musical form of Dmitri Šostakovitš’s preludes and fugues as a juxtaposed with the rambling movement of six dancers, the focus is on the dancer as a perceiving and sensing being. Deliberately distorting, breaking and reworking the relationships between the prelude and fugue, the characteristics of the choreography and audiovisuality the performance delivers to the audience the creation of a third generation adaptation of the traditional form.