Are You Guilty? @ Dance Base

Choreographed by Min Kim, who also performs as part of the TOB Group (Think Outside the Box), this double bill brings together two serious-minded pieces – Are You Guilty? and Barcode – blending contemporary dance, hip-hop, and theatre. 

An exploration of the ‘bystander effect’, the first act is suggestive of an office environment. Three dancers sit at a desk, dressed in suits with bare feet, mouths open and silent as if screaming, their faces taut with distress. They bang their heads against the desk (as one might a brick wall), and then, when their fists strike out, there is a sense of disaster having struck — something we, the audience, have not been privy to. 

It is impossible to look away, though at points the force with which these three do battle with their bodies (and each-others') proves painful to watch. Moments of stillness provide little respite, charged as they are with flickering shadows and pointed fingers: blame and shame. Their hands make the shape of a gun, a noose of a jacket collar, and one-by-one, they start scratching at the desk in unison. These images are weighted with tragedy — a sense of our having arrived at the scene too late. What’s done is not done, but done-for. 

In the second act, however, ideas around accountability and responsibility are considered through a new movement lens. A response to the politics of mass consumerism, Barcode works to remind us of our individual and collective power: our capacity to create change, if we choose. Here, set and props are used to great effect. A wall of cardboard boxes is flexible and ever-changing, with Kim’s earlier use of canon foreshadowing a literal, and inspired, production line. 

Challenging both conceptually and choreographically, Are You Guilty? is a daring performance from a very exciting and ambitious young company.

---

Are You Guilty?, Dance Base (Studio 3), until 28 Aug (not 22), 4.50pm, £14-18