ME (Mobile/Evolution)

There's a few key signs that tell you you've just seen a good show. You can't wait for someone to ask you how it was, so you can tell them all about it, for example. Or, as in this case, you wake up the next morning you still have the show's final, joy inducing image at the forefront of your mind's eye.

With Mobile/Evolution, Claire Cunningham has created something wonderfully simple, but undeniably powerful. Split into two halves, with a short, set-tidying break, both deal with the same core subject matter and (yet) are equally absorbing. As a young girl Cunningham's life changed when she was given her 1st pair of crutches; but that was BD, Before Dance, as she calls it. Now - in Mobile - an extensive collection of the utilitarian objects litter the stage, and as Cunningham moves with and speaks about them, these oh so functional objects begin to form a beautiful, hypnotic construction, spinning in space.

It sounds all too trite, but - in Evolution - watching the sheer pleasure that Cunningham exhibits whilst dancing, along with her dry sense of humour and intelligent honesty means you cannot help but smile along with her. Conception, music, lighting and movement all combine wonderfully: as the curtain fell the woman seated next to me turned and said "I want more". I couldn't help but agree.