PCK Dance: Into the Light Review – Future Moves Towards a Low-key Apocalypse | Dance

TThis is the special look you see on dancers sometimes, as if you’re taking a slow, deep breath in something expensive, an unsteady gaze, a slightly furrowed brow. It’s hard to describe – you know it when you see it – but what it denotes is emotional appeal. It is often combined with foreboding or overtly emotional music. Both of these things appear in the double bill of PCK Dance Into the Light, along with other connotations: a dark and ominous atmosphere, even a blurb written into the programme.

The thing is, the choreographic duo of James Pitt and Travis Clausen-Knight don’t need that heavy hand, which can overwhelm the finer details of the dancing, because they’re actually good move-makers. The pair are former members of Wayne McGregor’s company who were gaining strength as choreographers, and you can see that lineage in their powerful, deft, deft dancing (and the way their legs shoot through the air at extreme angles). They have a knack for stringing steps together into quick but clear sequences full of action, like the chatter of an animated brain. They are made with fluency and attention to form.

What is arguably missing, or what has become ambiguous, is humanity at its core, as well as something more universal, a larger reason we are here. In the duet “In Absence,” danced by the choreographers, you can see closeness and separation, tension and almost tenderness, and loss. Sean Pitt provides the music (with co-composer Greg Haines), and sits down to meditate at the piano midway through, which feels more intimate, if amorphous. The ship has the added dimension of the third dancer, Isabelle Evans. She’s gorgeous, with her decisive movements, expressive hands, and bent wrists, each a declaration. Partnership is explored in different permutations. There’s a great scene where Pete and Clausen Knight pass by, and even throw Evans’ body between them in a flurry of fast-paced choreography.

Sean Pete plays the soundtrack live from the tech bank in the corner of the stage, with sounds and textures like no other. It gives a sad feeling of the end of days. Low level apocalypse. The program suggests that the theme has to do with survival in an artificial intelligence-driven future. In this case, it is certainly very important to uncover what makes us human, and seek honest connection with the other humans in the room.