Disorientation meant we had no idea where we would end up - on stage, as it turns out.
Martin Roberts' Dark Matter reverses the positions of audience and performance and has us looking out rather than in. This is a work that is ``a light, sound and body installation - seven visual haiku in a dark void''.
Conceptually very cool, but a little hard going to begin with, as the opening two haikus were so dark it took some time for your eyes to adjust; when they did, the light, or lack of, created a shift in our perspective which made it feel like the dancers (Leah Carrell and Megan Wilson) were so much further away than they actually were (Allen Hall is not large).
Glimmers of light led to the slightest glimpse of the dancers in an unnerving and slightly disconcerting way.
The dancers are not the focus of this work; instead, they add another layer of texture to this visual light performance.
The way the fragments of light play with the surrounding surfaces and the billows of smoke create yet more fabric and form within this piece.
The soundscape composed by Jeremy Mayall adds yet another layer to this dynamic and multi-faceted work.
The fifth and sixth haikus are visually stunning and rewarding. The fifth simply being a vortex of light encompassing the audience while the sixth was an endearing reflective piece between the two dancers.
This work is all about the lighting, which is beautifully and exactly choreographed - it is amazing what can be expressed with a single lightbeam.
This incredibly technical work is not a passive performance - the watcher has to work for it, but the reward is ultimately there.
- Penny Nielson
