A Powerful Performance Ends GIFT Festival
REVIEW
Hofesh Shechter pushed the limitations of dance as a language with his presentation of “Show” at Rustaveli Theater on November 16 and 17. The show marked the final performance of the GIFT Festival, an annual celebration bringing the best of the visiting arts to Tbilisi. The bodies of eight dancers twisted in bold, exhilarating and tribal movements, leading the minds of the audience far away from the theater to a dark and sinister world of desire, murder, and comedy.
Internationally-acclaimed artist Hofesh Shechter is an Israeli choreographer, dancer, and composer based in London. Talented dancers Riley Wolf, Juliette Valerio, Zunnur Sazali, Adam Khazhmuradov, Natalia Gabrielzyk, Emma Farnell-Watson, Robinson Cassarino and Neal Maxwell brought his wild and wicked performance to life.
Composed of three acts, The Entrance, Clowns and Exit, each equally thrilling, the world becomes a stage and its a nightmare. The repetitious choreographic sequences of murder and life, love and hate, pain and laughter pose inherent human questions about the morality of society and how society came into existence at all.
Notably, there was no lead dancer. Instead, the talented dancers changed roles regularly, portraying perhaps the chaos of society and how each member of the world contributes in some way. The changing scenes and clothing of the three parts seemed to show a society evolving into a stranger and stranger world: the instinctive violence of a fragmented society reflected in tribal movements and sounds.
The audience watched, transfixed, as dancers slit each other throats and shot each other, only to get up for the whole process to begin again. All the while, the constant beat of the pulsating score sounded and smoke rose eerily throughout. At one point, the dancer Riley Wolf walked off the darkly-lit stage into the middle of the auditorium. The silence was suddenly broken and the audience jumped as he let out a piercing cry.
The last twist after the show seemed to have come to an end was a final sequence of murder and celebration as the dancers continuously killed each other in celebration only to get up and do it again, reaffirming the message of the performance. The audience almost reflected the essence of the play by cheering the disturbing scene.
For many in the audience, it was perhaps a harrowing and uncomfortable performance. Its message was powerful. The end was marked with a standing ovation, a deserving response to an undeniably touching show.
By Amy Jones