The human body is a precious, contradictory thing; fragile and strong, pliable but brittle, in a constant trajectory of aging, though still carrying the memory of its youth. This duet from Errol White and Davina Givan riffs in meditative and tender canons on all of these things, using as a motif the Japanese art of kintsugi, where broken pottery is repaired with liquid gold. 

The lighting gives us patterns of these golden cracks spread across the stage, and they are echoed too on the trim of Sophie Ferguson’s costumes, ruched and stitched with beautiful scars. Divided into several episodes, the movement is brooding and occasionally melancholic. White and Givan begin in an embrace that could be an end-of-night dance or an end-of-life gesture of love; either way it turns out to be a position to which they return again and again. 

They move in unison or in staggered passages of repetition, the flow and momentum of their bodies sending arms into sweeping windmills or stalking squats. These are interrupted by moments of stillness, sometimes painful, sometimes peaceful. It’s a thoughtful slow burner, but the moody reprises become too much after a while. It would have been nice to see more gold gleaming proudly on these wonderful, wise dance bodies. 

Dance Base, until 21 August, 7pm.