There are not many men in dance, not even nowadays. Nevertheless, Festival 4+4 days in motion presented two performances this year, packed with male element and energy. After Jo Strømgren Kompani, Club Guy & Roni introduced themselves with a new work Alpha Boys. The authors Guy Weizman and Roni Haver freely followed their choreography Language of Walls, presented in Prague in 2004. Instead of women there are men here, instead of female attributes the male ones. Not entirely though…
Small episodes of searching for one´s own identity and manliness in the postmodern times full of inconsistent tendencies take place in a smoky bar where six representatives of the male breed (Jonathan Ber, Camilo Chapela, Edan Gorlicki, Horte Morro, Igor Podsialdy, Ruben Albelda). In mostly individual actions they unveil the corners of their souls to the audience. The skits are full of humor, light hyperbole and irony. A man in heels wearing a blond wig is followed by a drummer in Scottish kilt who enriches the experience of the audience with his own underwear. A drunkard is not missing, nor a metrosexual duo flirting with the mostly female audience by their wiggling. Situations are sketched softly, there is no unnecessary extreme. Typical lables of „manliness“ such as agression and vandalism are at the end superseded by a poetic: „I never cry, do you?“
Larger dance sequences are mostly collective. Despite the obvious diversity of characters the performers can unite into one and they are unbelievably well coordinated. The movement vocabulary is quite varied; from isolations, abrupt movements, large jumps and flies through the air to softer and smoother expression; though not very innovative. However, technical skills of the dancers easily hides this little deficiency.
The acoustic aspect is taken care of by a combination of reproduced and live music. Jens Bouttery shifts from drums to a guitar and accordingly supports the atmosphere.
Club Guy & Roni was able to set the audience on fire by their 80 minutes long thrilling show. Spectators rewarded them by a thunderous and neverending applause.
Written from the performance on 21st October 2010, Archa theatre.Translated by: Kristina Durczaková
Josef Bartos
Thank you for your thoughts. One got stuck in my mind – that passion makes us different from AI. Just yesterday I read…I am a dance critic. I am a member of an endangered species