Yerma

Lorca’s tale of unbearable yearning and ostracism is told through the Indian classical dance of kathak in this piece from Surrey-based Amina Khayyam Dance Company. Khayyam takes the title role, with Yerma’s dominant husband, his watchful sisters and the rest of the community all played with sensitivity by Lucy Teed and Jane Chan.

Kathak’s courtly, kaleidoscopic patterns and echoing rhythms bring majestic power to the storytelling, creating a strong frame for the emotions of Yerma to run spiralling out of control. Khayyam pulls us into her agony with spins, stamps and fine-tuned arms that mark out details of the story.

It seems the bells on her ankles come to represent both acceptance and the ever-present absence of a child. When she dons them she dances buoyantly with the other women; when she takes them off her solos are intense with melancholy fire; and when she finally piles them in a lump at the front of the stage, you can’t help but feel the sadness in their cold misshapen form.

This isn’t dance narrative as we know it but something that burrows much deeper into the emotional roots of Lorca’s play, finding a poetry of its own in the sorrow and dignity of the movement, and resonating universally with the horror of being a woman trapped by society’s ideas for her.

Khayyam is phenomenally expressive and her eyes alone tell half the tale. A live performance from the three-strong musical ensemble only adds to the immediacy of Yerma’s pulse.