Suite Hope @ Dance Base

Conceived of by Chiara Frigo, performed in conjunction with fellow Italian Maru Rivas Medina, Suite Hope packs a remarkable physical intensity that heightens in severity into an industrial tremor of kinetics accompanied by a sonic shower incorporating Alva Noto and Leonard Cohen.

Within the show, which begins with an investigation of hope, a feeling of immanence pervades which is hard to pin down. Is it fear? Is it pain? Is it violence? Is it anguish? The emotions associated with each of the darker aspects seem can’t help but be felt deeply by spectators as their seeds have been planted by performers whose hopes are soon crushed by the oppressiveness of contemporary life.

Each find their own space to perform separately, like some wound-up mechanical animals re-enacting their electronic programming with repetitive but impassioned gesticulations. So much of how Frigo and Medina move subtly gesticulates an intense sexuality, and climatically their bodies merge together, resisting one another, yet lending balance as them move like a contorted yin yang.

The show ends as a multitude of paper men are leant up against each other, then gradually, two by two, they are blown down, and float away. Finally we regain our breath.