It is a bitter cold evening in February. The kind of cold that catches your breath. On the approach to the newly opened Sadler’s Wells East theatre, rollerbladers run rings around wrapped-up Londoners promenading in the Olympic Park – their helical paths echoing the towering spirals of Anish Kapoor’s nearby sculpture, the ArcelorMittal Orbit. Then, in the foyer of the building, throngs of theatregoers form snaking queues around a trio of captivated audience members, sporting VR headsets and headphones as they ‘interact with the aliveness of breath’. Apparently, the performance of HUMANHOOD’s ∞ {Infinite} has already begun.
In the theatre’s opening week, there is barely a chair available in the 550-seat auditorium when Iain Armstrong’s celestial score begins to swell, and the lights go down on seven performers sitting in a row, cross-legged, at the front of the stage. Their movements are measured, almost imperceptible, like that of monks and nuns. For this is no ordinary dance show, choreographers Julia Robert and Rudi Cole proffer, but rather a ‘Dance Theatre Meditation’. And one to which we are all invited, should we be able to tap into the ‘infinite power that flows to and through us’.
While this might sound far-fetched for some, with time, the constant ebb and flow of the choreography promises to soften the edges of any sceptic, much like the tide on a pebble beach. It’s hypnotic stuff. Limbs unfurl and furl like surf on the seashore. Each performer rippling off the other in wave-like patterns that actually resonate… Never did I think that the Mexican wave could make a comeback, but here, in Robert and Cole’s ‘sacred space’, it makes perfect sense. Here where the wind blows through you.
Key to ∞ {Infinite}’s success are the planetary illuminations of Tom Visser’s lighting design, orbiting from silver moonlight to golden sunlight. As are the dulcet tones of Deya Dova’s voiceover, guiding (or is it goading?) the audience to the denouement: ‘You have arrived’. And while I did not feel I had ‘arrived’ anywhere spiritually speaking, I did find myself breathing more steadily and more deeply, indeed, more aware of, even in tune with, my breath. Which is what makes us human, is it not? That level of consciousness which is simply aware: of the boundless dance of life, both within and beyond the theatre.
