Danse Noir

After Blaque Bordello, last year’s cheeky entry to the professional stage attracted critical and public attention, *Lewis Jones approached Penelope Mullen to create another all-black dance production using ‘best of the best’ dancers.

It worked! Danse Noir is stunning entertainment. Theirs is a developing style that encroaches on no existing dance companies. Eight principals work with (white) established dancer, Brian Lucas, who was also the dramaturg on this new piece. The sequence of vignettes portrays lifestyle events in an apartment block where a voyeur is observing activities in the units is erotic, enlightening and occasionally confronting.

Annie Roberts designed an atmospheric space for the dancers. Penelope Mullen approached Steven Loxley to create evocative lighting, and Loxley with Robert Mills devised a music score for the vignettes: everything from Eartha Kitt and the British Philharmonic Orchestra to Dust Brothers and Olafur Arnalds.

The eight principals all deserve individual recognition: Linton Aberle, Anita Brittingham, Tyrel Dulvarie, Kenny Johnson, Yolanda Lowatta, Sunday Lucia, Jesse Martin, and Alinta McGrady (who also shines as a vocalist in two of the segments).

Memorable performances came from the petite, dynamic dancer in the domestic violence vignette; the dancer who oscillated between macho male and androgynous ballerina on pointe, with the magnificent eagle wings headgear; the confronting bathtub seduction scene; Alinta McGrady in her two glamorous Eartha Kitt sequences; and the tango-rhythm finale.

Jay McKee 

Images: Kenny Johnson and Yolanda Lowetta & Sunday Lucia, Yolanda Lowatta and Anita Brittingham. Photographer: Ali Choudhry.