(Yesterday)
Where some choreographers start from music, Deborah Colker’s shows appear to be constructed around a very physical scene design. There was Casa (House), where the scene was built around a deconstructed house. There was 4×4, which actually had 5 parts, where the decor ranged from corners to porcelain vases.

Knot, which according to the programme is supposed to be about the philosophy of desire, had two parts. The first had a tree of ropes that later broke into four parts and then dissolved into a forest of ropes. The dancers were also connected and occasionally tied together by ropes. Desire in the sense of that which connects and binds, I guess. The second act was centred around a transparent box that the dancers climbed on, around and into – desire as yearning and frustration and voyeurism?

On the whole the performance fell short of my expectations, which were admittedly rather high after the previous two shows. Colker’s choreography is usually acrobatical, innovative and interesting, and the dancers move with energy and passion. This one seemed to have less movement and more posing. Instead of fluidity we got passages from one pose to another. Some of the pas de deux in act one were visually interesting and elegant, but even then ideas were explored for a moment and then abandoned as the dancers took a different pose. Somehow it lacked passion and felt more like physical exercise than art.

I was literally nodding off towards the end of each act, and can definitely think of better ways to spend an evening.