Hofesh Shechter

I still haven't written about Hofesh Shechter! It was weeks ago I saw Uprising/In Your Rooms at Sadlers Wells. And I loved it. But somehow I've found it difficult to find the words for it.

Time has already eroded my impressions from the night, but what I remember standing out in particular was a looseness that I don't remember seeing in much other contemporary dance.

A repeated movement that was reminiscent of a chimpanzee running and a skanking kind of movement lodged themselves in my mind. Loose necks, heads, arms. A lovely organic rhythm. Echoes of other worlds.

And there was a real sense of integration and overall vision. Of creating something with the dancers, the lighting (which was beautiful) and the music (which was awesome - at the start it was viscerally heartbeat-esque).

And of effect - use of force and stillness and formations (I remember vividly all the dancers in a line pushing both arms in the air in time with the music. Simple and very powerful). A subtle kind of imagery so that although I hadn't seen the running order I knew from the dancing that the first piece must have been Uprising, because it gave me a feeling of uprising, without being blatant.

I liked it very much, and I look forward to more Hofesh in the future... Will his style lose its magic for me if I see more similar work, or will it grow and evolve in fabulous ways?

See Hofesh's homesite http://www.hofesh.co.uk/
I mentioned skanking. If you're not familiar see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlnHQ7Y6WA4
And http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1aWYHG7lho which, as the kids say, is not real skanking - it's like a slightly hip-hop variant. Pretty cool though.