EN-PERFECIÓN is a Pas de deux between Domiziano Cristopharo and Jose Luis Lemos who together formed the company MATERIA PRIMA and perform in this recorded dance available on line. It is a dark stage and small bell rings out and a hand held light pierces the darkness to illuminate a staring face. Slowly a high backed chair wrapped in cellophane and tied with rope emerges from the blackness. The staging and lighting is Rembrandt like with dense shadows hiding and revealing details as the bright glare of the torch moves to and fro. The performance has started and there is an immediate tension.
The metronome striking of the bell resonates through the opening stages of the dance and creates a slow and enduring metronome like rhythm for the piece. The handheld light is used to great effect, revealing and hiding simultaneously and it draws the watcher into the scene. A second performer emerges and in contrast to the bell ringer he his clothed. What then follows is a wonderful interchange where the chair is divested of its plastic wrapping and the diaphanous nature of the cellophane becomes almost a third dancer, a connecting and dividing agent between the two performers.
The whole dance is a sequence of flowing scenes and exchanges between Cristopharo and Lemos, neither dominates or subdues the other but instead create a balancing act made of movement, expression and their bodies. The accompanying sound track is wonderfully powerful and a perfect accompaniment to the choreography. The deep sonorous tones of a throat singer resonates perfectly with the visual feast of the dance.
The entire performance is a slow rhythmic piece but with a paced forward momentum, it’s 35 minutes in duration, and I wondered if this isn’t 5 minutes too long, my attention in the latter stages became lost in the dark moving shapes and forms that are constant during the whole time.
It’s a powerful piece of work clearly devised and created with emotion, thought and fine attention. For me it explored the strange power of relationships which we form in life and perhaps casts light on how they work and how perhaps they might go wrong. Anyone who enjoys dance will get something from this event and the powerful forces it explores.
Delivered Online
Available anytime.
Suitability: 16+
Tickets: £ Free