Review: ‘Sun’ illuminates our world

Last week, Warwick Arts Centre welcomed Hofesh Shechter’s critically acclaimed dance company and well renowned for their dark and gravity-low choreography. Sun seemed like a new type of production for the dance company, who made use of humour to engage the audience. This change in dynamic and tradition for the company cause me to leave the theatre impressed and simultaneously a bit disappointed. As a follower of the company’s work, I had high expectation to see a work as intricately aggressive and beautifully structured as his recent works, namely Political Mother, which was a powerful mix of rock concert combined with obscure and angry movement choreography bursting with metaphors.

Posters and fliers for Sun proclaim that ‘the world is perfect.’ I entered the theatre with excitement, looking forward to seeing Shechter’s voice in his new work. He has a way of crafting a piece that is beyond the style of the usual UK artists – which is undoubtedly due to his training with acclaimed Batcheva Dance Company, an Israeli company. His upbringing in Israel and his desire to create work that goes beyond the ‘usual’ have fuelled the creation of pieces such as Political Mother and In Your Rooms, which have taken UK stages by storm. ‘The boring’ for Shechter, ‘is everything in the middle. It is the extreme that is the most interesting; extreme loudness, extreme intensity, extreme stillness.’

Sun begins with a recording of Shechter’s voice announcing that we will be seeing the final scene prior to the beginning so that we can wage ourselves in comfort, knowing that everything will be alright in the end. Structurally very interesting, Sun, plays with timeline, introducing characters and happenings in fragmented sections; cutting from one into the other and back into the first.

Shechter is renowned for creating and composing his own music and scores, working with a team of excellent musicians alongside him. The soundtrack to this piece was a mix of eclectic arabic rhythms, Scottish bagpipes, distinct helicopter sounds and unidentifiable soundscapes. Loud and aggressive, they stream through the theatre as the dancers bodies move to Shechter’s idiosyncratic choreography.

Archetypal figures (such as the white conquerer) take to the stage; unidentifiable as individuals, alluding to the modern world where individualism and freedom of expression comes as a second to the large corporative company. The audience is encouraged to look beyond the first layer of interpretation that Shechter offers to consider the problems of imperialism and the dark truth that is uncovered when the sun rises, illuminating, and revealing the reality of the world. What lies behind this notion is also the notion of fear; fear of the unknown, fear of the person beside you and even fear of yourself.
Between the mix of relaxation and tension, Sun offers some great parts, showcasing Winifred Burnet- Smith who stars among the entire cast of world class dancers. They demonstrate the beautiful elegance of both military regimented power and intricate flowing movements to an exceptional level. Notably there is a thrilling section where the power of dance is demonstrated perfectly when three female dancers perform barely dressed, alongside three dressed women. The naked skin and the muscles of the dancers are emphasised by the powerful raw movement resounding in the deafening soundscape catapulting us into another world. Throughout, the performance, the piece transports the audience from beauty into horror and back, with moments such as screams of terror coming from a woman in the front row inviting me to wonder whether Shechter is commenting on us, the audience, having become so numb to violence that we cease to react at all.

This is a piece of great tension and sometimes humour. Although some parts were a bit too slow, resulting in my overall impression of Sun that Shechter was potentially playing it a bit too safe as he moves from his previous shorter and more angry works, to this 75 minute, full length production. Nonetheless, this is a thought provoking piece of work performed by a beautifully talented cast of dancers, worth going to see by all means.