Edinburgh Fringe 2017
#Jesuis
Aakash Odedra Limited
Genre: Dance, Dance and Movement Theatre, Physical Theatre
Venue: Zoo Southside
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
With six dancers under the spell or attack from a seventh we get an exploration of what it means to belong, to rebel and to have an opinion. Solidarity and difference is explored through a performance that is energetic, effective and entrancing in a way that keeps you focussed and interested on the subject matter whilst, at times having, ah yes moments that illuminate the themes in a very creative way.
Review
We begin with 6 characters in what appears to be a room as the old radio gram is unwrapped. The reports that come from the radio start us off with reactions to them and the fear they provide is very real. When the 7th enters and starts to organise people you get a real sense of the 7th being a corrupting influence. There are some great set pieces with the cling film wrapping of the women in particular symbolic of how we have tried to keep the noise down whilst not listening to the legitimate concerns of those who ought to have a voice.
This has a high intensity in terms of the subject matter which is matched by the application from the dancers. It makes for a very clever and highly imaginative piece that is never less than impressive. The work in particular towards the end which includes all the women is highly charged and leads the revolution in a way that makes you want to join in.
The real joy though is the theatricality, the lighting, the music, the mix of the theatre arts that lifts this out of the commonplace. It is charged and tells you not just where the barricade may be but what to do to attend to them.
The clarity with which you are able to identify the nefarious influences, the hope, the way in which discord is quashed and voices that are trying to be raised are squashed is just sumptuous. It was a joy to see such collaboration and to feel that we were part of a very creative, highly structured and massively beautiful piece of physicality, which dealt with dark and ugly subjects; vive la difference!
We are trying to constantly get our head round how to deal with how we feel about terrorism and it may be a cliché that is laughed at that interpretative dance could be a way to respond; here it shows that it is better at explaining and translating emotions than many other mediums could ever be.
