Joli Vyann: Imbalance

Imbalance is a great choice for those looking for early evening enchantment. In the isolated calm of the Circus Hub, you sink into it and let it wash over you; it mesmerises with graceful acrobatics and storytelling. 

Olivia Quayle and Jan Patzke perform an intimate ballet about a very normal couple and the challenges they face in our uber-connected modern world. Well, they’re normal up to a point. It’s not every couple who can balance on each other’s heads. 

The choreography, by Jonathan Lunn, cleverly mixes the mundane with the mercurial. A table is used in countless inventive ways, the performers sliding under it, over it and balancing on its edges. Mobile phones become batons to be exchanged during a call.

It’s all accompanied by a gorgeous, jazz-infused score that reflects the mood but never dominates. And the infrequent exchanges of dialogue are both funny and imaginative. This is a show full of small surprises.

These vignettes of a couple’s life are starkly modern and recognisable; he spends too much time on his phone, she worries about the impact of social media bullying. There is an important point being made about how our digital over-connectedness is stifling real-world relationships. 

Quayle and Patzke—who established Joli Vyann in 2012—make an attractive and perfectly matched pair, somehow looking both ordinary and completely otherworldly. They crackle with chemistry. This is a dance outfit for our times, which looks set to soar.