Sadler’s Wells East, London.
12 February 2025.
∞ {Infinite} is a one-act dance theatre meditation by HUMANHOOD’s Julia Robert and Rudi Cole. Where dance meets meditation within the five elements including water, fire, air and earth. The fifth element is of course space, and how that is to be explored visually on stage, and internally within ourselves is about to be discovered.
The audience have been promised an open door through which they are invited on a mystical journey, to tap into the infinite power that flows in and through us.
Keen to accept this offer, to experience something new, there is a feeling of anticipation among the varied audience at Sadler’s Wells East – a brand new venue for all forms of dance, opened this month. Front of house has a casual café/bar ambience, and during the run of ∞ {Infinite}, there is a free opportunity to take part in a virtual reality experience in a sectioned-off area in the foyer. Wearing headset, headphones and bone-conducting jacket, participants journey into a 360 degree cosmos full of stars and interact with virtual dancers.
The auditorium is quite large, one main body of tiered seats without aisles, clean, clear and quite sparse, perhaps intentionally so – a blank framework for whichever production arrives to use the space. Nature sounds and the open dark expanse of stage awaits, as well as a very relaxed start, almost 15 minutes after the announced starting time.
Knowing that this performance will be a work derived from Robert and Cole’s worldwide ventures into meditation, personal development and a desire to raise human consciousness, it is already a unique feeling, to have been invited – almost expected by the pre-performance brief – to contribute as an audience member.
The nature sounds increase in volume and added to them is the rumbling of thunder, again increasing in depth and volume as the auditorium lights gradually fade, and the curtain slowly rises on seven motionless dancers standing facing the back, legs apart in a strong stance. For a few moments, we wait, as the sounds build and reverberate, and they gradually turn their heads to the left as a unit. And then their bodies rotate slowly, until facing the front. They melt to the floor into a meditative pose, followed by rolling seated movements through which we can see the breath moving through them.
The musical score from the outset is a huge part of the impact of this production. Everlasting hypnotic, meditative chords, with melodic and percussive interludes, interpreted exquisitely by both movement and lighting. Often a heartbeat underlies the music:
‘Can you feel your heartbeat? Your inner rhythm?’
There are occasional spoken words over the music, which are not an intrusion, but feel like an extension of the experience. And here is a big part of the audience’s invitation:
We are encouraged to think about the ‘Infinite space contained within the body.’
Light is given via white spotlights onto an otherwise black and blank stage, the perimeters of which are never seen. Effective use of overhead spotlights cast a stark atmosphere, and dry ice regularly seeps on from the sides adding to a mystical and mysterious feel and at times envelopes seated or low-moving dancers.
Advice is given prior to the performance not to follow the moving lights that appear onstage, but instead to gaze into the dark expanse. And in doing so curving light lines appear; the infinity sign.
Something I notice part way through the production is that I have forgotten to think about whatever it is that I thought I was supposed to be thinking of. I suspect that is the choreographic intent – to allow oneself to let go and sink into the music and the movement. The exacting flow among the seven dancers draws you in. There is a lot of unison, simple choreographic techniques, and equally there is a lot of free-flowing individuality. In the continual flow, rise, fall, curve and roll of their movements, their breath can be felt as well as seen. Their loose, non-descript clothing allows unrestricted free-flow, without indoctrinating the audience into any particular style.
The dancers are pulled magnetically across the stage floor by one another, representing waves – the pull of the tide? They are deeply attuned to one another. They don’t look at each other, but they do not dance introvertedly either. They do not seek the audience’s attention with their eyes or their projection, and yet the promised invitation and connection is definitely in existence.
Occasional blank stage moments – intoxicating, or spell-breaking? In the depths of one such black moment, a shadowy formation begins to appear upstage left. The eyes and brain seek more clarity, but it is held in shadowy confusion for some time before the light rises.
Tribal movements, rhythmic bouncing, effective and energising; lights held in the palms of dancer’s hands, sometimes shining on themselves, sometimes darting through the air like shooting stars. Dancers seated in meditation pose, contained in their own pool of light, still but full of energy. There is a wonderfully rhythmic section where percussive sounds are embodied through expansive movement in a continuous circle.
A visual spectacle from start to finish, but meditatively simplistic at the same time.
“We have trained in ballet, contemporary, tai chi, Qigong, and all those elements come through in our work,” Rudi Cole said onstage after the performance.
“Our work is very much inspired by movement in nature,” added Julia Robert, who explained during the post-show talk that ∞{Infinite} had been created during lockdown, during a time when people could not travel anywhere. “So, we went on a journey within.”
The ending of ∞ {Infinite} was calm, and reflective. Dancers meditated before their own individual light, positioned in a semi-circle around the stage.
‘What desire do you have that you can release into infinity now? Let it go.’
An interesting and powerful question and statement, before light slipped into darkness and sound slipped into silence.
The sound and the movement both reverberate within for a long time after the production and the post-show talk have been completed.
By Louise Ryrie of Dance Informa.
