Fluttering between real and virtual worlds
Random Dance Company @ Trafo!

In Random Dance Company’s newest performance, the boundaries between the real and virtual are abandoned. This poses an intriguing question: can you tell the dance from the dancer? The show, entitled Aeon, is the final piece of the groundbreaking trilogy, commissioned by London’s Southbank Centre, and it is regarded as the company’s most ambitious work to date.

Random has become a must-see company right after the first show of the trilogy, The Millenarium, was presented. The piece, just like the whole of Random’s art, is dedicated to the creation of high quality dance performance that resources the enriched possibilities of artistic expression in the dialogue between art and technology. The dance imperative drives the application of technology, with the choreographic pallet extending into new mediums: digital film, projected space and virtual reality. Sulphur 16, which came as the sequel to The Millenarium, was Random’s second work in a trilogy that takes a fresh look at dance and technology. Artistic director, Wayne McGregor performed alongside his seven excellent dancers and collaborated with his award-winning design team.

Aeon, this 70-minute piece, is a computer generated imagery, sound and illusion transporting audiences into an unsettling world that is light-years from all that is familiar. McGregor’s choreography and use of technology have grown more sophisticated over the years, so that the computer animations no longer mask a lack of structure in the dances. An integrated, multi-media performance for eight dancers and virtual partners, Aeon (earth/air) takes place in a virtual, physical and screen-based space. At first, noisy, high-adrenaline action dazzles the senses, and then overlapping images of worker-ant clones present a novel kind of group dynamics. Finally, pure dance dominates. This last piece of the trilogy has no need of the light show, animator Timo Arnall’s graphic creation, a whirling, pulsing jellyfish, is even more amazing than the virtual dancers. But McGregor’s real discovery is that he can choreograph for bodies not his own – and that other people, rather than digital programs, can offer him new possibilities.

The real dancers loop expansive curves and slash long, sloping lines, spanning space into a hyperactive entity. Their bodies seem to fracture into a hundred of inhuman segments, but equally, the shapes have a dancerly clarity and harmony. Dressed in Ben Maher’s flattering costumes, the dancers seem near as perfect as their virtual counterparts projected among them.

Random’s reputation for futuristic, groundbreaking new work continues to grow nationally and internationally as it takes on an exciting range of performances, working with cutting-edge artists of all backgrounds.

Enter their world and you enter into the haunting confusion of alien and exquisite sensations!

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Edith Balazs