Wed 22 Jan: Aisha Naamani, Annie Kelleher and Gabrielle & Luke

Aisha Naamani No Idea What I’m Doing

Annie Kelleher Where we are now

Gabrielle & Luke Not Even a Pin Drop

Who would you want at your side during the apocalypse? Annie Kelleher’s two-hander Where we are now follows a shabby pair, desperately leaning onto each other for support. They seem pretty tight — you’d need to be during the apocalypse. As the heat sets in and the layers come off, movements turn from lethargic to frenetic, they jab and twitch like flies in a heatwave. This bipolarity is a little jarring, and only serves Kelleher’s very relevant exploration of the climate emergency in an obvious manner. In their final moments, the couple openly admit all the wrongs they’ve done to each other, using their last breaths to hog the mic and outdo the previous confession to humorous effect. This is where the interesting stuff lies: even at the end of the world we’ll hold onto the petty things.

Aisha Naamani’s solo No Idea What I’m Doing follows a woman on a mission. Naamani is determined to become her best self by any means necessary (with assistance from a pretty unhelpful audiotape for building confidence). Her movement style is laden with external forces weighing her down and contorting her, that pressure to improve. Her uncertainties literally cause her to spiral across the floor like an anxious whirlpool. The work is endearingly unstraightforward, it leans into its oddball absurdities with a giddy delight before toeing the line with total emotional resignation. With her silken spine and highly expressive face, Naamani’s hesitations and humanity leave a refreshing impression at Resolution.

There is more personal storytelling in Not Even a Pin Drop. Choreographers Gabrielle & Luke were inspired by the former’s sudden deafness in one ear. We open with a group of smiling classical dancers, curving their arms generously. Tanisha Addicott — technically very strong — fragments from the pack into a punchy solo, grabbing hold of her ear while the music and lights get starker. But fear not, by the end the gang's back together flitting about gleefully. Narratively it’s clear, but there’s little room for internal meditation or catharsis as these scenes briskly flicker past us. As a dance offering it’s pleasant and light, with a clear eye for patterns and canon, but it never asserts itself as an emotional work.

Eoin Fenton

The pleasure of watching dance is to be able to focus on the body’s expressive qualities, and choreography frames those qualities in a theatrical setting. The consistency of a work is when the dance qualities match the choreographic frame. On this ninth evening of Resolution there is one work, Aisha Naamani’sNo Idea What I’m Doing, where the consistency is palpable between Naamani’s dancing presence and the way she presents it. The title suggests Naamani doesn’t take herself too seriously, but her performance leaves us in no doubt that she is in full command of her art form. She develops her idea of 'an ode to the dawning realities of adulthood' with an extensive arsenal of theatrical expression that keeps us wholly engaged in every detail.

The first work of the evening, Where We Are Now, choreographed by Annie Kelleher in collaboration with Jonathan Aubrey-Bentley, is framed in some kind of disaster scenario related to the climate emergency. When we first see them, Kelleher and Aubrey-Bentley are slowly shuffling towards us, leaning heavily on each other, mouths dry and eyes half closed like shell-shocked victims. Their gestures are not quite convincing, but when Kelleher breaks away to strut her gratuitous contemporary technique, the flight from disaster is unmasked and left in tatters. There is an episode of removing the tatters of their clothing in an epic struggle and a final exchange of epigrammatic barbs that sends up any seriousness. If the beginning was developed thoroughly and spliced to the surreal ending, Where We Are Now might be clearer.

Not Even a Pin Drop by Gabrielle de Souza and Luke Cartwright is "a narrative work based on Gabrielle’s experience of sudden deafness in one ear", but without this programme note the frame disappears. Tanisha Addicott as de Souza's alter ego has gestures that suggest sudden deafness but the translation of her emotional states - "fear, hope, isolation, gratitude and disorientation" - blends seamlessly with what appears to be a suite of neo-classical dances. Fortunately the five dancers - Addicott, Rosanna Lindsey, Maggie Kelly, Elizabeth Jeanna Ortega and Ellen Wilkinson - are a pleasure to watch, especially Rosanna Lindsey. Not Even a Pin Drop comes unframed.

Nicholas Minns