Dragons - Dance Consortium Presents Eun-Me Ahn Dance Company, Birmingham Hippodrome 25/26 March 2025, 4☆☆☆☆. David Gray & Paul Gray.

Dragons - Dance Consortium Presents Eun-Me Ahn Dance Company, Birmingham Hippodrome 25/26 March 2025,

4☆☆☆☆. David Gray & Paul Gray.

“A visually stunning and extremely exciting exploration of traditional and contemporary dance.”

Dragons gets off to a disconcerting, almost comical start. An elaborately dressed figure shuffles slowly across the stage. She is having a hushed conversation with a flexible metallic tube extending from the end of her arm. She gets about halfway across when another dancer leaps with acrobatic energy into the dance space. He dances round her but comes to rest and regards the shuffling figure quizzically. A third presence enters. This one is, in reality, two dancers conjoined within a bulbous costume to form a monstrously distorted shape. The creature they form is festooned with a stouter version of the flexible metal tube.

While it seems disjointed, the sequence introduces all of the elements from which choreographer Eun-Me Ahn builds her 75 minute dance piece. The shuffling figure - with their minimalist, precise movements, and slow progression across the space - seems to embody many of the qualities of traditional dance. The more energetic second dancer, who leaps, travels, and uses the whole body and dance space, seems to embody many of the qualities of contemporary dance.

The work is a fusion between the two dance styles, and by integrating them, it explores the tension between those two styles. And it is this tension that underlies the argument and structure of the whole piece.

After the opening sequence, the stage gradually fills with dancers; seven in all. They dance independently, not touching, with energy, but on a stage-bound level; they do not lift or elevate and, initially, there is no flat-on-the-floor work. It is only gradually that they appear to be liberated from the constraints of traditional dance and start to explore the space and each other more freely using the whole expressive palette of contemporary dance. This contrast between small, precise static movement, and more freely expressive, expansive movement, is used throughout the work to create dramatic rhythm and structure.

The design of the piece develops from the third, distorted figure in the opening sequence. Stunning costumes are used to accentuate movement, to extend and distort the dancers’ bodies, and to create a sense of physical dislocation.

And then there are those snake-like metal tubes. They create the walls of the set and frequently invade the dance space. Their significance seems as flexible as the dancers: comical, sensual, comforting, devouring; they are all these things at various times.

Holographic projection is a fundamental element, with figures projected onto a front-stage gauze. The live dancers interact with the projections. The impact of this is mixed. At one point, where translations of spoken words are projected, it perhaps distracts from intricate physical isolations performed by individual dancers. At another time, multicoloured versions of the flexible tube motif proliferate to powerful effect, threatening to devour a helpless lone performer.

Although somewhat uneven and, at times, disjointed, this is a hugely imaginative and provocative dance piece. It is visually stunning and, technically, extremely impressive.

Artistic Director & Choreographer – Eun-Me Ahn

Composer and Music Director – Young-Gyu Jang

Lighting Designer – Jinyoung Jang

Video Direction – Taeseok Lee

Costume and Scenography Design – Eun-Me Ahn

Technical Direction Creation – Jimyung Kim

Performers

Eun-Me Ahn, Gaon Han, Doekyeong Kim, Hyekyoung Kim, Seyeon Kim, Doohee Lee, Hyeonseo Lee, Yongsik Moon