Together Alone @ Dance Base

Together Alone, danced by the brave choreographers Zoltán Vakulya and Chen-Wei Lee, is a duet of closeness rather than intimacy

Review by Roisin O'Brien | 09 Aug 2017

Danced entirely naked, Together Alone's nudity is gently introduced rather than jarringly revealed under a sudden spotlight, for the performers are already in the space, floating around each other as the audience enter. The beginning of the piece sees a puppet dance of shapes, as each dancer smoothly guides the other through a geometry of intertwined arms and undulating curves.

The dancers rarely look directly at each other. When they finally do, their bodies frontally pressed against each other, their tongues touch but do not kiss. Together Alone is beautiful, although the admirable effort to remove all embarrassment, impressive as it is, is sometimes distancing.

However, this is soon happily contrasted by a sudden burst into swing dance (danced with complete abandon by Vakulya and Lee). At first almost stiff and official after the fluid corporeality of the beginning of the piece, then becoming thoroughly enjoyable, it is only in the cruder, choreographed movements that Together Alone first becomes sexual. It speaks to our rules of sexuality and sexual behaviour, imposed on the almost blank slate of the body.

The ending of Together Alone lacks a clear send off, but this is a serene work, engaging in its simplicity, and which allows for continued reflection on the human body long after it's finished.


Together Alone, Dance Base, until 27 Aug (not 10, 12, 14, 17, 21 or 24), 9.45pm, £10-12