This innovative, high-energy piece, performed by Korea National Contemporary Dance Company, combines the jagged, bold angles of contemporary dance with the flow and fluidity of hip-hop. Choreographer Lee Kyungeun has taken the notion of breaking free from society’s constraints, and created a piece that journeys through disparate patterns and disjointed worlds, to arrive at a bold communal dance party, thrumming with uplifting vitality. 

The ensemble appear in clothing cut from the same green and pale fabric, although one or two buck the mould with a pop of black or tie-dye. They peer curiously around, first at us, then at the back wall of the stage, as if these are the boundaries of their existence. They break off as individuals and become lost in their own dance, while folkloric echoes (bell chimes and traditional melodies) ripple through the score. 

^{Picture: Aiden Hwang}

A dancer appears bearing a giant Perspex sheet, which he squashes suffocatingly against his hands. More Perspex sheets appear, with more dancers piling up in them; it all looks crushingly painful. And yet as they trudge with the sheets on their backs, the reflection also creates a mirror image of the dance, as if it’s being performed twice, once bearing heavily on the dancer, the other weightless in some parallel world.

This hopeful reflection eventually comes to pass. The walls are broken; the disjointed movements of that first half all melt into an infectious, wild harmony, and the ending (full of popping and street dance) is joyous. 

Dance Base, until 14 August, 9.30pm.