Jolie

To the Kaaistudio this evening to watch Solid Gold and Jolie. The two solo dancers, Dinozord and Jolie Ngemi, are from Kinshasa, their work is choreographed by a Canadian, Ula Sickle, and the live sound track is created by French musician,  Yann Leguay. For me, this was a glorious success, set in the comfortable intimacy of the Kaaistudio. Dinozord comes from a hip hop background and puts this experience to good use, though his performance is a wittily expansive history of dance, passing through various styles. And Jolie, inspired by music videos and nightclub life, uses her voice and percussive vocal chords to lay down loops of rhythmic melody to which to dance. Part of me, having seen quite a bit of street dance and modern dance recently, was thinking ‘isn’t this a return to source?’ I thought of this guy, whom I once saw doing this. And where did he go to get his inspiration? In any case, it was splendid and the dancers were wonderful, projecting their bodies and their personalities with deceptive ease.