Fringe-veterans Scottish Dance Theatre, this year celebrating their 25th birthday, return to Zoo in fine fettle with a mixed bill of three works, two of which showcase choreography developed within the company.A Little Shadery, choreographed by Assistant Director Sally Owen, is a playfully frivolous short duet featuring a man singing to a tree, set to Handel’s Ombre Mai Fu. This is followed by Dream for Light Years, a slightly longer, more memorable duet by company dancer Joan Clevillé. Clevillé has created an elegantly condensed snapshot of a relationship at the crossroads, by turns harmonious and clashing, as the catalyst of change is played out with sincerity and clarity in all its pain and glory. It is an intense and engaging work: flowing, varied, perfectly paced and danced with moving tenderness.The triple bill concludes with American choreographer Kate Weare’s Lay Me Down Safe, a 30 minute piece which features the ensemble in an ever changing landscape of separation and union, desire and loss. The stage is fraught with sexual tension, and the movement leaps headlong and with an animal energy into the confrontation, aggression, frustration, sensuality and sensitivity of the matter. Weare’s sharp choreography wholly embraces an eclectic soundtrack, which features diverse musical styles from Philip Glass to Leonard Cohen, though at times this journey is lacking in coherence.
