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Synergy Dance Theatre, Ironinc, Tiny Hands

Injury without insult, a rollicking ride, and a red and black Catholic-tango-art-thingy


Synergy Dance Theatre is an ‘integrated’ company of dancers both with and without chronic injuries – much like any other company. But We Can, We Will makes injury its subject. The most striking image is of one dancer tethered by long elastic bands – you think of hamstrings stretched to  breaking point, or of forces constantly tugging her towards the sidelines. Elsewhere, the piece lurches unsteadily between cabaret and contemporary dance. The high note: Laura Karlin’s song about the muscle and the hot water bottle – not that it’s funny, but performer Louise Dickson has a beautiful soulful voice.

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Jennifer Irons’ Due to Unforeseen Circumstances also careens between styles and situations. And what a great ride it is, a freewheeling sequence of riffs on the theme of love and motor vehicles – bodywork, maintenance, breakups and breakdowns. A couple tell us how their relationship crashed. Dancers speed across the stage in different lanes, ending in a human pile-up. A woman straddles a motorbike with her thighs as a couple of geeks get off on her shapely carburettas. We keep looping back to a bus stop where a tiny woman with big hair is tying herself in knots as she frets over her ex. Finally a big guy with big hair casually joins the queue. ‘You like cars?’ he asks. Looks like he’s just the lift she needs. This cool, canny piece was a lift for the audience too.

(Santa Maris de los) Buenos Aires sets bright red shoes, roses and lipstick against sombre black dresses and shadows. A floorbound tango generates edgy erotics as two women weave and circle. They unfurl fingers from between their legs, as if giving birth to flowers. To a chanted Ave Maria, one processes towards the light as the other scatters roses along her path – like the blood of a virgin? Imagine a Catholic tango art movie: lots of suggestive imagery, not a lot of action, all vaguely mysterious.