Enso LaNua @ Dovecot Studios

From the Dance Base Studios to the Royal Botanic Gardens and from the Dovecot Studios to the Drumsheugh Baths Club, Enso LaNua in true 'dance in installation' style have relocated to a different space every day over the course of the Fringe to try to find their answer.

One of the group’s key focuses is ‘personal development through movement and art,’ and against a backdrop of a workshop of colourful yarns’ and wools, today’s performance at the Dovecot Studios could not be better placed.

Inspired by Japanese haiku poetry and Zen calligraphy, which derives from a Buddhist expression meaning ‘true thought,’ LaNua have opened the gates to a garden of peaceful tranquillity and reflection.
In weightless and graceful moves, the dancers’ embody a time-serenity that you also find yourself trapped within. As elements of water and fire-crackle crash against wind-chimes and bells and string and windblown instrumentals, for 30 minutes you are lost, and like the stones hanging from the banisters, ‘suspended’ in time.

The show has wanted to ‘touch the subtle inner experience of reality’ and in taking reality away, it has.

In bounced translations, the dancers whisper the words “feelings” and “to be written” and like these reflective words, feelings, and communication, are what this show has been about.

Whilst La Nua’s questions are interesting, it is impossible to find out the answer about space for yourself unless you go to see every show. But, other questions and answers do raise their heads. Can, for example, a 30 minute show shape or change your life? Whilst the performance has not changed my life immediately, it has given me the space and time to think about ‘how’ I could, and this has been a change in itself.

No matter where you see the show, La Nua’s dancing and sounds alone will always inspire change – whether this be in mood, or being given the time and space to make an important decision in your life. Seeing more than one performance is just the icing on the cake.

A useful reminder that nothing happens without movement, La Nua provides you with a stepping stone to think about change – and gives you the confidence to act on that thought.

The positivity gained from taking 30 minutes out of your life to quite simply ‘be’ should never be underestimated.