Some things in life are simply, inarguably, cool. Titanium, the new show on at The Peacock Theatre, produced by Sadler‘s Wells is one of those things. Combining traditional Flamenco dancing with Hip-Hop, under some hip-hop influenced Flamenco music it moves breathlessly from moment to moment leaving the audience gasping as the performers sweat on stage.
At first the dance forms may not sound like they have much in common, but they do. Both originate in street culture (albeit on different continents), with strong veins of competition and showing off. Add to that their very rythmic music and you have styles that compliment each other nicely.
For the first hour or so the post-apocalypticly dressed dancers carry out a narrative of sort, before exploding into a series of scenes that make no pretensions of story. This is not a dig. Of all the elements of the show, the strangest was the design and outfits. They recall a Rammstein video more than the streets of Spain or New York. The dark aestethic serves well, especially in the first half. In a particularly fun scene, one of the dancers does a tradititional dance on a sheet of metal, causing a sound unlike anything you will have heard before. It has an all male cast. A spirit of competition runs through as the dancers outperform and out dance each other. Seperate from that are the four musicans providing a backdrop, including a haunting singer/rapper.
The cast dance their hearts out, egging each other on under the careful choreography, naturally building to a crescendo of dancing that is modelled after the street dancing that origanated from the two artforms. The show is more about the joy of dancing than anything. It is infectiously fun, with some seriously impressive moves pulled of and beautiful scenes. Whilst it doesn‘t neccesarily add up to something more than the sum of its parts, it is certantly not less than the sum. At the end, the fragmentation doesn‘t really harm it, it’s just too much fun. 4/5
Review written by Ingimar Sverrisson.
Titanium is currently showing at The Peacock Theatre (Sadler’s Wells) until Sarurday 23rd May. For more information on the production, visit here…
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