Review: PATTERN RECOGNITION, Dance Xchange, 3 NOVEMBER 2016

Former Birmingham Royal Ballet and Rambert dancer Alexander Whitley continues an ongoing investigation into relationship between dance and modern technology with Pattern Recognition, seen at Dance Xchange in Birmingham. Performed by two dancers, Julia Sanz Fernandez and David Ledger, Pattern Recognition explores light, shadow and memory.

The piece opens with three gauze screens creating a barrier between the dancers and the audience. Backlit by rapidly flashing spotlights, and occasionally plunged into darkness, the dancers perform two individual, apparently unrelated solos. Whitley's choreography features jerking movements and rapid changes of heigh and direction. This dynamic movement means that, after each brief moment of blackout, the dancers appear to have teleported magically from one spot to another.

The strobe lighting effect creates a disorientating atmosphere of disjointed movements and hazy shadows, something akin to the struggle of trying to piece together a half-forgotten thought. However, when the lights flash up into the audience, I found myself uncomfortably dazzled on more than one occasion.

The screens are cleared and the flashing stops to reveal a central pool of light, into which the dancers tentatively come together. Whitley's cyclical choreography involves staggering partner work: lifts in which Ledger appears to hook Sanz Fernandez into the air with just one leg, and innovative counter-balances where one dancer appears to rotate around the other, as though on an axis. As each section of choreography is repeated, the speed and confidence of the movement increases. I get the impression of a couple exploring one another, testing boundaries and re-creating special moments.

Whilst the cyclical nature of the choreography establishes the idea of memory and recollection, it does become rather trying over 55 minutes of two dancers repeating the same or similar sequences. The choreography is mainly earthbound, and I yearn to see the athleticism and virtuosity of the dancers stretched further.

The most ground-breaking aspect of Pattern Recognition is the connection between the lighting technology and dance. Intelligent motion sensor spotlights track each dancer's movement. These lights are not pre-programmed, but are driven in real time purely by the choreography. Ledger performs a solo of reaching arms and undulating spins and, one by one, the lights reflect his movement. With the light just split seconds behind the choreography, Ledger is crisscrossed with beams of searchlight, or perhaps starlight.

These stunning, cosmic effects created by the intelligent lighting highlight every small detail of the choreography, from a twirling finger to a sudden pirouette. The relationship between the technology and the dance creates a new dimension, a shimmering world of light and shadow when nothing is quite what it seems. In Pattern Recognition, Whitley discovers a new way of designing contemporary dance which offers boundless, exciting opportunities for the future.

Photo: Tristam Kenton

Pattern Recognition has just concluded its UK tour

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