A:Version and Pitch

These two pieces almost couldn’t be further apart. A:Version is by a young, inclusive quartet called Indepen-dance 4 while Pitch is a solo show by established dancer Skye Reynolds. But both pieces look at notions of uncertainty, of perfection, and the transaction that’s made when dancers puts themselves in front of audiences. 

Indepen-dance 4 perform Laura Jones’s piece A:Version in which the four dancers—two of whom have Down syndrome—take the audience through a sloppy rehearsal of a dance routine. They’re lazy and they make mistakes. Then they do it again, a little tighter this time but still lacklustre. But after going off stage and changing into spangly costumes, they re-emerge and give us the whole thing perfectly, to loud music.

They’re constructing dance as they go, giving the audience an insight into how a show is made and showing that there can be no such thing as perfection. Meanwhile they joke with us, trick us into thinking they’re not very good. 

The programme note for the second part, Pitch, is sort of pretentious, a bit incomprehensible. But it becomes clear that this is part of the joke: Reynolds is constantly second guessing how she should pitch herself to the audience. This includes a self-assessment form asking how effective her marketing copy is.

A huge smile sticks to Reynolds’s face throughout but it’s mismatched with the self-doubt and uncertainty of her speech. She examines, among other things, how to be a woman, how to change the world through dance, how to take a (literal and metaphorical) stance.

It’s a tremendously intelligent, brilliantly wry piece of performance and a perfect conclusion to an excellent double bill.