Combination Dance Company 
off-side 

A projected film of people at a bus-stop, three of them occasionally breaking into abrupt movement, was injected with humour and looked promising. Unfortunately, a little while after having burst from the film to the stage I wanted to banish them back to their two-dimensionality. The use of footballs, of all sizes, only highlighted their clumsiness and the token child was at best irritating. Having previously appeared at Resolution!, I was hoping that Combination Dance Company would be more skilled than they were and the ideas more finely tuned.

Vena Ramphal 
Fluid Transformations 

"Mathematical calculations", "rhythms", "staticity and fluidity" all combined to give way to some nice ideas but shallowly displayed. Vena Ramphal did not manage to convey a mature mastery of karana techniques, and tight sequences were broken by stray gestures. Drawing her energy from a triangular dynamic between music, dance and sculpture, one image of her arms intertwined with those of a sculpture of Siva stood out and betrayed the fact that there was more substance to the piece than had actually materialised. M Balachandar's percussion was captivating and the initial complicity between dancer and musician could be the basis of more fruitful future collaboration.

Synapse 
Mitochondria Eve 

Synapse's beautiful, powerful and expressive "Mitochondria Eve" was enough to cure the ills of any previous performances. Beautiful in the undulating unfolding of a relationship between two people. Powerful in its pure tamed physicality of snakelike coils and predatory control. Choreographically expressive, gestures rendering a language of strength, collapse and exchange. Echoing one another’s forms and yet never sharing movements, Tailju Matsumoto and dancer/choreographer Sayaka Tamagawa both had unflinching stage presence. Abstract and literal, the repeated gestures, by the end, took on the meaning of longing and flight, possession and freedom. Synapse’s performance was faultless. I hope they return again, and again, so that others can enjoy their moving energy and effortless skill.