A light rose up on the stage to finally reveal a group of 3 men and two women who moved en masse along the diagonals. Their movement was ape-like: often dropping down on all fours to lumber forward, sniffing the air in front of them. They would often return to this configuration during the show. This primitive behaviour would play out in other ways: group cohesion versus individual desires, expulsion of weak-willed members, fighting over status or affection. A firm story-line can be welcomed in the often abstruse world of narrative-less modern dance, but this story was a little too on-the-nose. The telegraphed and predictable plot was the weakest part of the repertoire.
But their dancing was as strong and interesting as ever. Though the hip-hop elements were usually subsumed into contemporary dance as quick movements, there were occasions when they came boldly to the fore with wonderful impact. The slide and freeze of locking was used to signal different members arriving at a group consensus as their movements became more and more synchronized. The effect was mesmerizing and occasionally chilling. When the group leader faced off against his rival, their flips, kicks, and tumbles portrayed brutal violence in the most visceral way I've seen on stage. Unlike Broadway's West Side Story or classical ballet's Romeo and Juliet, you didn't have to squint much to see the realism of actual combat.
There was their trademarked group manipulation: dancers were often connected hand-to-foot, arm-to-arm, and every other combination. But I was also struck by segments that "rejected" this close touching: a female dancer who slipped and twisted away from the grasping embraces of her peers; a male performer who seduced his target by moving, but not touching, her body with the nearness of his hand; and various dancers who grabbed their own limbs or clothing to manipulate their own body.
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