Tue 13 Jan: Isadora D'Héloïsa, Qi Song and Seirian Griffiths

Isadora D'Héloïsa Entrecuerpos

Qi Song Archive/Flesh/Echoes

Seirian Griffiths Interchange

Emerging from behind the black fabric of layered ruffles: a hand. The fabric drops into a skirt and D'Héloïsa’s angular, sculpted lines surface. Her musical and bold upper body roots the following performance in fierce Vogue and Flamenco skill where live accompaniment is met by New Way and Femme elements. D'Héloïsa duck-walks, her heels rhythmically relating to the musicians. In another moment, a luxurious dip is underscored by the soft strums of a guitar. Although a potentially exciting fusion of Flamenco and Vogue, Entrecuerpos felt, at times, confused. With so many possible connecting points between the styles, attempting to explore them all came at a detriment to the solo and subdued the power of each.

Archive/Flesh/Echoes is an amalgamation of concepts, with the second half of the work holding the most potency. Qi Song’s nine-person ensemble shifts from hyper-sexualised undulations to uncontainable joy, to slow-motion tranquillity, and back again. At one point, bodies bundle into a nestling pile of melted limbs. They breathe, and each exhale ripples across the mass. Supported by Sanki’s sound design, moments explode with energy, electrifying the group through rave.

Griffiths captivates in his compelling solo Interchange. In this grounded neither-here-nor-there landscape, the audience acts as witnesses of a security screening, anticipating Griffiths’ passage to the next life. Allusions to hold-music, and to exceeding one’s baggage allowance create comedic wit and space for the choreography to build. Buoyed up by impeccable lighting and sound design, Interchange cradles a soul worn by loss, and cracks open the heart in a tender portrayal of the imperfect ways humans muddle through love. Unparalleled feats of body control, sensitivity, and acrobatic skill define the work. At the end, Griffiths stands with eyes searching skywards: he awaits his fate-powerless yet hopeful-in an unyielding and ever-shrinking beam of light.

R.E. Pegg

A particularly fine and varied night of dance at Resolution last night, although not all the works were conceived for viewing in the round. A case in point was Isadora D'Héloïsa'sEntreCuerpos, a vogue and flamenco mashup complete with two musicians and flamenco singer, and really intended for viewing from the normal seats out front. I had a great view as D'Héloïsa intriguingly began as a ruffled heap hidden under her long-tailed flamenco dress, slowly exposing an arm and her super-expressive hands and fingers, then moving into a duckwalk, and we were off. Accompanied by three costume changes, the emphasis seemed more on extravagant (new) vogueing dazzle, although the slickness of her clever arm movements added to the occasional more traditional flamenco movement. D'Héloïsa is a good mover, but ultimately I'm still not sure that vogueing's surface glamour is a natural complement to flamenco's deep-rooted earthiness.

A different aspect of club culture was explored by Qi Song in her Archive/Flesh/Echoes — a time-lapsed look at a rave. For nine dancers and a DJ, there was a lot going on as Archive charted the ebb and flow of energy levels and relationships throughout the night, accompanied by well-cued lighting and a great soundscape from Sanki. I appreciated the varied movement vocabulary, including social, trance, hip hop and contemporary references, but it felt at its best in an almost Bob Fosse-inspired togetherness that would lift the roof off any club. While it felt too long, I appreciated the high production values, strong dancing and am interested in seeing more of Qi Song's thoughtful work.

The evening closed with a standing ovation from a gobsmacked audience. Seirian Griffiths has a long dance pedigree with major choreographers, and this solo work showcased him in mesmerising form as both dancer and choreographer. Interchange is based on what happens when you die and face a reckoning, with much wit in the voice-over of a smooth-talking afterlife customer care operative. Joshing aside, it is the power and ever-turning strength of Griffiths' movement — both in the twitchily dying and in remembering life's wrong turns — that so astounds. Think of the power and majesty of Russell Maliphant, but with much speed and ground-devouring gusto. Griffiths has been on the radar of many, but this felt like a breakthrough piece, and he deserves a major commission. Or two.

Bruce Marriott

Isadora D'Héloïsa weaves together colour, music, Vogue, and Flamenco to depict the plight of the female body through potent symbolism. She imbues the costumes with layered meaning—a shift from a black tailcoat and golden bullfighter top to red pants—mirroring the female form’s journey: from an object of the desiring gaze to a vessel of abundant life force. The live soundscape, created by guitar, percussion, and cante, is rooted in traditional beauty, thrumming with an organic texture. How could one yank the female body out of the clutches of the "gaze" and return it to its owner? The answer may well depend on the practice of every single woman.

If D'Héloïsa explores the body's social symbolism, Qi Song delves into its raw, physiological power. Through continuous trembling, repetitive waving, and rhythmic twitches, the dancers generate a collective "force field" through bodily echoes. As this field intensifies, literal meaning falls away, and we are moved profoundly by the dancers. Their direct emotional power slowly floods the stage, highlighting the most distinctive aesthetic mechanism of dance: the visceral, bodily resonance that bypasses intellect.

Movement is often used to mimic reality or convey symbolic meaning. Far less common, however, is its capacity to generate a state of ‘what has not yet existed.’ This is precisely the frontier Seirian Griffiths explores in Interchange. Within a clever and subtly humorous theatrical frame, Griffiths’ dynamics create a "reversed time" visual effect through a unique manipulation of weight and joint force. It feels like watching a tape of bodily motion rewind. The body moves as if guided by an external force and embodies a state where memory and emotion have been extracted from the flesh. This powerful synergy between theatrical concept and somatic execution forges entirely new emotions, holding the audience captive in an unprecedented spellbinding experience.

Yan Zhenzhen