Day and Night

Different as day and night, Appel is a lively coarse trio and Ring Cycle is a smooth dark solo. Appel is a threesome: a man, a woman and a musician playing together in a ménage with plenty of attitude. Like a duel in contemporary dance with hip-hop leanings, it often gravitates to the floor, and gets robust and sexy. Ring Cycle, on the other hand, is more precise and melancholy. Ring Cycle's Shamita Ray is silkily attired and her performance is like a wood sprite in a forest engaging with the light and shadows. Her hand gestures are so perfect and exact it seems as though she is sculpturing the air. With barely a gap between the two performances it comes as quite a shock: not just because of the very different performers, but the radical change in the music and lighting. However, this stark contrast gives the show its sense of wholeness. It is as if day and night have been somehow concentrated into forty minutes.