angel monster by Cluster Arts and Phluxus2 Dance Collective

Contemporary dance is used to showcase the female experience.

angel monster by Cluster Arts and Phluxus2 Dance Collective

This contemporary dance piece was described as exploring the "dreams, the nightmares, the tremble, and the limits of the female experience".

The opening was intriguing, as the audience was greeted by an expressive cast of female performers, who rolled across the stage and contorted into strange positions whilst welcoming us in. The five dancers used highly expressive breath-work, floor-work, and eerie puppet-like movements. 

There were certain moments which shone through, as they explored clothing and body shame, as well as the violence that the female body experiences. The main props used were clothing, which they put on and took off, and wrapped around their bodies in strange ways, showing their liberating but also confining nature. Unfortunately, the symbolism felt repetitive at times, and certain movements extended themselves beyond the time frame of what felt necessary. The direction of the dance show was clear, though it perhaps could do with new and fresh movements, and with bolder symbolism. Using dance to tell a story or share an experience can be powerful, and a stronger narrative arc would have made this show easier to connect with and understand.

Nonetheless, the audience left entertained and feeling like they'd been a part of a special story. At one point the audience were welcomed onto the floor, as the performers hand us items of clothing to lay down in connecting lines on the ground, telling us that each piece represents a fallen woman of the past, who we are now laying to rest with her sisters and peers. 

Author

Kashmini Shah

Kashmini Shah Contributor

A Politics and English Literature graduate based in London, working in Publishing. Kashmini has written for Voice Mag and Chortle at the Edinburgh Fringe, and is a winner of the Malorie Blackman Scholarship for Creative Writing, where she works on a fantasy and a crime novel. She likes to write on a variety of topics, from book reviews, to engaging with feminist discourse in the media.

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