Cloud Dance Festival opened its doors to Hush last night, its eleventh Festival to date and the first evening of the three night festival commencing Friday 16th July. Staged at the Cochrane Theatre in the central location of Holborn, the festival provided an intimate and friendly location as a platform for both emerging and established innovative and creative choreographers and dancers to perform their work. The evening saw a welcome return of many dance companies to the festival, with an eclectic and diverse night of some seven performances, the first night of the festival did not disappoint!

Starting off the evening was Antique DancesTernion choreographed by Holly Noble, a performance that explored the notion of breaking down gender roles in performance. Consisting of three performers, two female and one male dressed in identical black leotards, gender is no longer on the agenda in this work. The performance, Cunninghamesque in style, presents the dancing body as a blank canvas and explores how the body moves, displaying angular limbs and straight torso. For brief moments we see distortion in the torso, a delightful change of imagery and breakdown of the overall unyielding movement.  

Choreographed by Annika Sillander, Sillander & Pascual’s If pain must come, let them extend to few is an intimate look at the journey one takes on the human desire for eternal happiness. The piece explores human interaction as the four dancers engage with each other throughout the movement in a sometimes painful, often delirious quest for happiness. The attainment of happiness is neither clear nor certain but the humorous and witty journey the dancers take their audience on is thought-provoking and cleverly portrayed. Visually beautiful with delicate lighting and accompanied by a varied soundtrack, this is a truly enjoyable work, which successfully transcends from one extreme emotion to another.

The evening saw the first performance of a festival triple bill by Taciturn, If it can be broken, it can be fixed, choreographed by Tom Roden. The lights go up on the stage to reveal a single microphone as a dancer enters the stage, greets the audience and introduces the first section of the piece. The connection with the audience reveals the individual personalities of the four female dancers as the introduction to each section of the performance and the spoken word continues throughout the piece. The final section involves one of the dancers reading a list of things she wants, ranging from trivial things to hard hitting emotional requests, moments of heartache lay underneath the humour of the performance. A delightful and welcoming performance. 

As the stage lights illuminate the space, eight dancers cover the stage for Sol DansEbullition. As the music fills the room an electrifying and vibrant burst of movement begins. The energy from the dancers is infectious and is continuous throughout the piece. Choreographer Melody Squire’s inspiration from Greek mythology and architecture is evident in her choreography as throughout the piece her dancers create visually beautiful, statuesque imagery. Squire’s jazz background is evident as the dancers’ movement elevates around the stage to create uplifting, energetic performance.

Pair Dance return to the festival with RUSH choreographed by Harriet Macauley, enthralling the audience from the start. On viewing this piece one has no choice but to become captivated by the intensity of the four dancers. The intuitive choreography cleverly interprets Macauley’s manifestation of commuter chaos, the four dancers each representatives of an individual, conveying their own inner personality and emotion. Moments of stiff and rigid movement reflects the nature of today’s society and the daily frustration in the anarchy of our social system. Fabulously executed, this piece was a highlight of the evening.

Anima Dance Company presented Dual, as the penultimate piece of the evening, choreographed by Magdalena Radlowska. A deeply relatable work, the duet explores the daily frustration, repetition and emotional suffering that can occur within a relationship. Infused with moments of humour as we observe the male sat at a table loudly crunching on his breakfast, the piece is an honest look at the strain we endure when in love. As the dancers move together the frustration builds, they battle whilst in the grips of intense passion and love. The piece is a well presented insight into how we cope with the trauma of love and relationships.

To conclude we are treated to Slanjayvah Danza’s Crazy Joanna, a work that approaches the subject of domestic abuse with great empathy. The piece begins with the two dancers gripped in a performance of Argentinean tango, accompanied by the appropriate music, revealing the darker side to love and passion. The piece explores the pain of infidelity as a second female diverts the male dancers’ attention briefly in the performance. A combination of beauty and tragedy, all the while a celebration of the survivors of domestic abuse, choreographer Jenni Wren and her collaborative dancers must be credited for their sensitive approach to this prevalent issue; a must see performance. 

A varied an exciting evening of work, Cloud Dance Festival and director Chantal Guevara provided a range of riveting performances for a varied audience. Some three years after being established, Cloud Dance Festival continues to make dance accessible and provide a platform for talented artists, and it is with great disappointment that Hush is likely to be the last one due to lack of funding and resources.

Reviewed by Susanne Allen for Cloud Dance Festival