The Bite Magazine - Spring/Summer 2022 - Issue 31

bitetheatre Oxygen F rom The Netherlands is the Oxygen dance ensemble, which proved to be my favourite ensemble of the night. An all-female urban contemporary dance crew who achieved getting into the finals of America's World of Dance in 2020. Again another spotlight starts the set with a dancer dressed in white surrounded by seven other dancers dressed in black. Their faces and hands contrast the black cos- tumes. They are somewhat eerie as they stand still in a semi- circle surrounding the spotlit dancer in the middle, then start dance movements that reach towards the white-clad dancer but quickly withdraw as she notices them coming, apparent through the dancing. The effect made the audience curious about who they are, why they are reaching for the dancer and what will happen if they get hold of her. The beautiful cannoning of movements worked with the stage set, costume and eerie piano and guitar music. Then as the dancer in the middle grabbed one of the black-costumed and pulled them into the spotlight, their dance movements replicated a heated exchange, though beautiful- ly executed. The same thing happened with another from the semicircle, whilst the rest of them either stayed, stood still, in the shadows of the spotlight or swapped places in a beautifully choreographed shuffle. The exchanges underneath the spotlight convey a conflict, but it appears the white-costumed dancer has the upper hand, Mr Kriss M r Kriss is a dancer fromPrague, Czech Republic, whose appearance on the stage had me think- ing of the deserts in North Africa. He entered with contemporary movements shouldering a blanket, to an original piece of calming piano and synthesiser, like a bird in the wild - swooping, landing, perching, ducking and floating around the stage to an orange ambient light and smokey background staging. Although it was a dark stage set, it had us focused on him and his movements. He finally removed the blanket, slowly and pointedly laid it onto the floor, and as he laid face up on it, a musician walked in, standing stage right and progressed to play an instrument I am unfamiliar with. The Duduk, an ancient Armenian wind instrument, was played so beauti- fully that I felt mesmerised by the sound and movement. Mr Kriss continued to dance from his floor position in such a wa- ter-like flow of waves and then got up to mimic movements from the wild prancing, jumping and deconstructing break dance to make it contemporary and fluid. With the Duduk evoking a feeling of Africa-Arabia, the blan- ket prop, stage lighting and specific dance movements all tied into a great aesthetic that resonated well with their purposes, even when a drumming soundtrack played and the move- ments got faster. The blanket was then given more significance in the piece, woven into the narrative as an object of oppres- sion. What I appreciated about this performance was that hip- hop dancing doesn’t have to be jerky and popping; slowing a typically fast-paced dance genre down can create beauty in its silhouette and execution. www.mrkriss.com