“A” and “D” at Radialsystem V in Berlin
Review by Viereinhalb Sätze, Four point Five: Writing on Dance
As much immense attention is paid to sound, light, and texture as to the movement itself in the two duets A and D by Jeremy Nelson and Luis Lara Malvacias. Splitting the stage space in two, the first offering begins sculpturally and with a gentle precision and symmetry, a softly lit, white background for strong but flowing movements, a gentle duet before spinning into an elegant and ebullient, if somewhat monastic, take on hopscotch –– there’s an incredible softness to the way the two flex their strong bodies that later on turns into charm when they reveal the intentions and inspirations behind their series of works: to create an alphabet of duets for themselves in which they explore certain concepts (for each letter stands for a word) and various ways of approaching creative processes well into their „wheel-chair age“. The second piece begins on the other side of the room, in a new landscape: a beautiful textured backdrop of painted paper and bird-shaped cut-outs, dim lighting, hooks dangling from the already low ceiling, two characters obscured in black plastic who count the passage of time with their slow but ceaseless journey around the circumference of the stage. Here Nelson and Malvacias dive and twirl, float and fall asunder, disrobing to create ghosts, black garments hanging darkly, empty and striking upon the teeth of hooks before, at last, an image of a tree, projected, brings everything to a close. Powerful male bodies presented not as threat but as inquiry, sorrow, yearning, compassion, balance…