Photo: Luca Truffarelli
CONSIDER the resonance of ‘Whack!!’ and its crisp contact force. It could be cards slapped in temper on the table or as easily, a belt against flesh. ‘Whack!!’ is the contemporary dance performance coming to Dance Limerick from Paris, present home to Irish choreographer Philip Connaughton and longtime collaborator Ashley Chen.
Well received in the French capital, in Tours and at Farenheit Festival, they now travel through six venues in Ireland with this hour-long concept around the theme of Obstruction.
Be warned: it is “a physically and technically demanding piece”.
An immensely pleasant man on the phone, Connaughton makes the point that he and Chen are more or less “on the level in our own professional trajectories”. And “in collaborative works, there is a lot of give and take and sacrifice of our own [sole] vision. Our own aesthetic does not come through 100 per cent”.
Underlining his respect for Chen over a decade of working together and the push-pull integral to this, the idea of obstruction emerged. “[Whack!!] turned out quite violent, re-directing the other body, physically and technically obstructing the other body”.
Each dancer/ choreographer had their own path as to what to do and “where we meet is the idea of physical violence”. Sound knowledge of each other facilitates risks not to be considered with any one else. The effect is Chaplin-esque, dark and funny and precision cut, leather soles on.
Photo: Luca Turffarelli
Connaughton elaborates on their steps and shifts between violence and tenderness “and from these moments of tenderness come some moments of actual physical exhaustion, from where we have to push back.
“It’s quite humorous, quite funny and these elements almost for me, were more tragic than anything else”.
They give us a glimpse of their booted and suited selves on
https://vimeo.com/140567380. The Irish man makes clear that “I am never into alienating an audience”. Instead he looks to produce “something that is abstract but that can be read on many levels”.Book your amusement for Thursday March 3 only at John’s Square, 8pm www.dancelimerick.ie
