Playing Landscape

This elegant piece of contemporary dance theatre is showing as part of the Made in Macao series at C venues. It’s directed by Taiwanese stage director Hope Chiang, and perhaps as a consequence of her theatre background there is a definite feel of progression—if not narrative—as the four dancers grow in connection to each other across a series of episodes.

The most strange and beguiling images come in the opening scene; bodies sprawled beneath black silk that slowly retreats like an inky tide as the performers are revealed. At first they wear only nude basics, and when they finally don everyday dress they seem bewildered by it, picking at threads, playing and stretching their tops over their heads.

There seems to be a theme of rebirth (or birth and growth) at play, as couples pair off and tease one another. Soon the choreography ramps up a notch in pace, slipping liquid quick embraces and turns through stretched limbs and long lines.

This pleasing quick cleanliness fades towards the end however, and an extended section involving a ritual with ceramic water bowls feels grave and important but dilutes the build up that has come before it.

Playing Landscape has a feeling of being both ancient and modern; the dancers in their most complex passages are a delight to watch, precision unfolding down each muscle, always focussed and drawing us in. Ink artist Cindy Ng’s designs meanwhile, swirling thick paisley patterns on the backdrop projections in deep colours, are the perfect adornment to the movement.