The Belt, from Korea’s Ambiguous Dance Company, is a two-part event.
First, Past, is a site specific exploration of identity through repetitive movement, with 6 short performances which take place across different areas of The Coronet theatre. Billed as “immersive” i would argue the label does the work a disservice. Instead it is site-specific, with the movements inspired by the spaces, and vice versa. Throughout this section the audience are moved around the space by guides - this is a bit unceremonious, and moved at an intense pace (so much so that my group lost people more than once). Nonetheless the pieces were thought provoking in their own right.
Second, Future, takes the ideas of durational performance and boredom from contemporary theatre and places them into the context of dance. Situated in the main performance space at the Coronet, and lasting over an hour, the company perform a non-stop piece of choreography to a continuous techno DJ set. This on its own is exciting, however coupled with a movement vocabulary which challenges perfection, it is quite thrilling overall picture. The movement takes classical dance movement and muddies it, making it look like street or club dancing….while still underscored by strong technique and precision (despite looking to the untrained eye completely imprecise). The sheer endurance of the piece is breathtaking.
A delightful evening, which challenged multiple preconceptions.