What seemed to be an amateur dance troupe clad in black soon became a moving sculpture of body art, with hands morphing into waves, words, trains, cars and faces - all timed precisely with the sound effects and cheery music. Soon you forget that the hands belong to bodies as they transform into tiny ballerinas dancing the Nutcracker inside a television, a feat that leaves you looking at your own hands wondering how the performers can create such shapes with the same instruments.
The tone of the show is varied but equally eloquent whether comedic, as in the tongue-in-cheek scenes with fast piano tunes, or poetic, creating completely new environments on stage, with the pulse of hands telling of winds, seasons and ocean currents. In these more abstract explorations of movement and shape, interpretation is open; what to me may be fish in the ocean you may think is falling snow.
There are a couple of scenes completely in the dark, with luminous hands painting on the black canvas of the stage, creating a showcase of Scottish images to bagpipe music. The shapes are drawn with liquid smoothness and the music melts the tapestry of hands into a riveting, unpredictable performance. It is not a magic show; you can see how they do all their tricks and gags, but the originality and creativity behind the work certainly casts a spell.
