Are you on the edge of the circle figuring out the inner action or standing inside the circle and musing about the external world?  Ways of looking and perspective continued to fascinate choreographer Liz Roche and here she applies her customary reflective dance-making intelligence to that of physical difference.

Commissioned to make a work for Croí Glan, integrated dance company, Roche chose the form of the duet. She brings an intuitive subtle experience of the form to make partnering  the central focus of the work, artfully mining it for her two dancers, Mary Nugent and Dawn Mulloy, one disabled, the other not.
They appear to us first, leaning symmetrically, one on the other, yet gracefully  revealing their  physical  distinctiveness and individuality.

A phase where shouldering moves of support and balance dominates then dissolves fluently into classical solo runs of expressive dance. Mulloy and Nugent  in turn skirt the lines of three rectangular lit spaces, or spinning adroitly within them, underline how confinement is often just a question of understanding.
 
Nugent shapes with her arms and upper body, extends one leg along the floor or curves her body to its full extent while Mulloy fully vertical  swirls around,  an elegant  arabesque here, a kneeling pose  there. Luca Truffarelli’s video design of ripples of colours ebbing and flowing, fills one of the illuminated squares. This dissolving waves of colours and  Joel Mellins lyricical soundscape counterpoint the continuous interchange of the dancers, each quietly learning from the other. As a small bookending gesture,  Mulloy links Nugent’s arm in the opening sequence and in a tender closing phase this simple gesture is reversed to quiet effect.

Star rating:   ★★★★