How cruel love can be. That simple idea is a staple of everything from great literature to pop songs. Now comes Deborah Colker with a sleek, dark new piece of dance-theatre to remind us anew of the pleasures and the pain.
Working with the designer Gringo Cardia, this Brazilian choreographer specialises in large-scale, thinking person’s eye-candy. In its many previous UK visits her sexy young company has wowed audiences by cavorting on such spectacular set-pieces as a giant wheel, a climbing wall or a stylised three-storey dwelling. This time she’s after something more dramatic and densely layered.
Presented last week in High Wycombe, Cruel is touring Britain until July 3. The performance is split into three sections. In the first, seven glamorous heterosexual couples — plus one odd woman out — swirl and swoon beneath a giant, lace-covered white globe that looks like a cross between the Moon and a Christmas bauble. With its vernacular inflections and athletic classicism, their movement has a seductively dreamy energy and elegance. It’s a vision of romantic perfection straight out of a perfume ad.
