Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Sleeper
Jajack Movement | Korean Season presented by AtoBiz Ltd
Genre: Contemporary, Dance
Venue: Assembly @ Dance Base
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
This forty five minute contemporary dance piece is a veritable feast for the eyes and the soul. It is also a window into another world. We drink in this sensory experience as we are bathed in the sound and lights of the pure artistry of this performance.
Review
We hear children’s voices and light traffic sounds. As the lights come up there is there is a transparent box centre stage bathed in neon blue light. The sound of drips is ominous and haunting, coming from what seems high above to the deep earth. Now we can see man lies in the box curled up, he stays there. Four dancers walk towards the box and the man inside, is still. They move majestically into different rows, crisscrossing the space making new rows and patterns in a ritualistic way.
Jajak Movement, part of the Korean Season, explores how we live in this world with an approaching climate crisis in this thoughtful original piece choreographed by Kim Yu-mi. Their answer is to turn to art as a solution and to to explore a traditional Korean ritual to engender community spirit thus restoring life – and saving our own lives. This is beautiful vibrant imagery in front of us. The bright shiny box center stage, the intriguing lighting and beautiful dance quality of the ensemble is stunning. Bells and reverberating electronic music play and it is impossible not to feel it!. The man is alive after undergoing challenges and seeks to survive.
The box is alive and shimmering with the transparent covering of plastic forming ripples – it’s a very exciting visual momen! To thunderous sounds he tears down the shimmering covering and escapes the suffocating box which is immediately transformed – and so is he. He does a jubilant solo with such incredible flow and nimbleness to his movement. This is pure movement in space to original contemporary choreography and it’s very compelling. He is fast and cuts the space with jumps, turns and sublime presence.
The ensemble return with bells, wearing beautiful colourful skirts and they begin to perform a ritualistic section that leads to tying and untying knots. Four female dancers move with precision in vigorous motifs. In another earlier quartet they do a series of lay back extensions in unison and then gracefully glide up to standing in inspired choreography with their outstanding dance skills.
What is the struggle of the knots is denoted artistically by several long ropes of fabric that are red, yellow, blue and black. It’s a curious and fascinating ritual as it is expressed through dance and visually very interesting. This forty five minute contemporary dance piece is a veritable feast for the eyes and the soul. It is also a window into another world – and we drink in this sensory experience as we are bathed in the sound and lights of the pure artistry of this performance.
This is where it’s at! Catch if if you can!
