Firkin Crane Centre, Cork
Dancers are not easy on themselves, to judge by the performances offered by those running the Ricochet Dance Company which presented a two-piece programme in Cork. Artistic Directors Kate Gowar and Karin Potisk are founders of the company with which they dance and on this evidence their commissioning principles are stringent.
The Enigma of Sin is the work of Gary Carter, danced to the music of Asylum, composed by Kathryn Locke. Against the weight of this score, the Eve of Kate Gowar emerges bone by bone, muscle by muscle in a process which culminates in a flowing expression of grace under pressure.
This sense of movement against resistance is crucial to the piece, in which the patterns develop with evolutionary sloth, despite Justin O'Shaughnessy's lighting plot. The effect is sometimes that of stasis; the use of speech, the staccato rhythms of the music and the contrasts between slow writhing actions and total stillness suggests internal rather than external sequences.
The dancing itself is beautifully conceived and executed with skill. In Cut, choreographed by Russell Maliphant to a soundtrack by Matteo Fargion, the dance is even more exclusive to the company. The sculpted and intricate movement is so intense that heavy breathing seems part of the score, although the lighting by Michael Hulls lends a welcome coherence to the different passages.