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Body Language

People-watching via layered filmed/live dance show
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Body Language

People-watching via layered filmed/live dance show

Refined people-watching is the thing in this visually layered, quietly pulse-quickening collaboration between David Bolger, artistic director of intrepid Irish dance-theatre company CoisCéim, and American designer and photographer Christopher Ash.

Each performance is different depending on who is the central guest. The day I attended a young woman was the camera subject of Ash, whose quick, whispered directions to her remained unheard. Gradually a slew of images of her were projected over the walls of the venue, turning it into a temporary gallery.

Four white-clad dancers slipped into the space, interacting minimally with us but mainly responding – in either a detailed or full-bodied manner – to the photographic distillation of gestures elicited from the guest. Meanwhile Ash's camera roved about, capturing bodies in motion.

It's easy to become absorbed by the surface attraction and gently searching ephemerality of this work, set to Michael Fleming's sensitive (rather than cloying) and sometimes pulsating music. The cast – Lee Clayden, Ivonne Kalter, Jonathan Mitchell and Emma O'Kane – is watchable, while the idea of using others as our mirror images seems tantalisingly true. The pleasure of Body Language is that it's about the person invited to be filmed live, but it's also about us.

Dance Base, until 25 Aug, 2.40pm, £13 (£11).

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