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FringeReview Scotland 2025

The Violet Hour

Dance International Glasgow presents Colette Sadler

Genre: Contemporary, Dance and Movement Theatre, Movement

Venue: Tramway Theatre Glasgow.

Festival:


Low Down

There is little by way of a word-based narrative, but a visual storyline unfolds in three chapters, distinctly drawn from the three performers. They physically interact with the imaginatively produced set to a measured effect. It is a visual theatrical musing upon our natural questioning of nature.

 

Review

©CamilleDTonnerre           ©CamilleDTonnerre

Three solitary figures move alone on a plinth down stage right. They emerge and merge between and from each other’s presence onstage. It is a physical interaction that blends fluidity with interruption. When in harmony, through voice and song, the harmonies of each becomes not just a springboard but also a bookend for each element. The three different sections managed to draw out small movement and drag them to a point, tonally which is contemplative. We end up contemplating more than being enthused.

Presented as part of the current Dance International Glasgow festival this international, European collaboration drawing support and involvement from partners in Belgium, Germany and Scotland. The performance takes as its starting point poetry but soon imagines life with our digital reality firmly in its artistic firmament. Themes of love, de-creation, and transformation abound with the notion of all ecologies and their influence upon us, not least the disconnect between nature and the digital arenas. Ending in a stone landscape reminds us of the Metamorphoses and rather than Ovid’s transformative narrative perhaps we need to recede to regroup and reimagine life as it ought to be.

The seamless choreography takes us from each section. It is however the interaction with the projection and set which really works to draw you in. the fusion is great. I loved the use of the sun at the opening as well as how the backdrop moved into what appeared to be lava flowing behind. The redness heightened the illumination of the moon hung in front of the back curtain.

The use of mask was interesting to see, particularly when in the middle section, it anchored our attention with the physicality. The distance between us as an audience and was drawing a consideration and thought more than engagement and involvement.

This was a well-imagined theatrical piece of movement, and well-executed piece of theatre. Caution and discipline were highly artistic with a distinct ability to blend feelings and emotions with how consideration of the environmental impact on our lives was to be critiqued.

Published

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Colette Sadler