The three-girl trio behind dance collective Spiltmilk are nothing if not perky. Bouncing brightly to the music as the audience enters and dressed in charmingly retro skirts and dresses with requisite vintage hair and lipstick, Jenna Hubbard, Jennifer Manderson, and Adele Wragg are cheery and charismatic performers. The piece promises "our own take" on the various social dance crazes of the twentieth century, from the Foxtrot and the Hokey Cokey to Line Dance.
Despite the rather cramped space provided at C nova, Spiltmilk's dances are slickly performed, never out of rhythm. Yet, for all this, the production as a whole felt static and largely unfocused. We cycle through various forms of ‘social dance’ without much attention to chronology, and it is never entirely clear what Spiltmilk intends, or what they have to say.
The personalities of the dancers - though each is charming and talented - are presented as largely interchangeable; we get little sense of thematic cohesion or narrative. The press release promises a ’look at the many ways people interact through social dance; from passing on skills to intense competition’, but this was less than clear in the dances themselves.
Without a sense of story or a clear structure to the performance the dances, however nicely choreographed, tend towards the static. The show's moments of thematic clarity - enjoyably dissonant fusions of disco dance moves with Frank Sinatra's ‘My Way’ or rave with Judy Garland's ‘Get Happy’ - have the desired effect, but, after the initial novelty of such a pairing wears off, tend to outstay their welcome.
The show's best piece by far is its finale: a mash-up of song-specific dance crazes, including the Macarena, YMCA and Gagnam Style, set to the tune of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Here, the complexity of the choreography and the wry interplay between the classical piece and the thoroughly contemporary dance moves allows for a richness absent elsewhere in the piece.
Still, the brisk energy of Spiltmilk Say Dance was palpable throughout and the winning personalities of the performers do much to engage. For audience members looking for a lighter, well-performed dance piece, it might prove a diverting way to spend part of an afternoon, but it’s a bit too unfocused and sedate to provide a more substantial experience.
