Edinburgh Festival: Black Grace, Assembly Roxy - dance review

Neil Ieremia's first UK show is highly technical, accessible and stylish, with music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Sesame Street to Bach
Athletic: Black Grace exude solid power in tight formations (Picture: Duncan Cole)
Lyndsey Winship19 August 2014

There's nothing like a personal welcome, and that's what you get from choreographer Neil Ieremia as he comes on stage to introduce his company, Black Grace, one of New Zealand’s leading contemporary dance groups — only appearing in the UK for the first time this year.

This show is a ride through 15 years’ work, a primer featuring seven pieces, beginning in 1999, when Black Grace was an all-male Maori/Samoan dance company. The dancers exude solid power, planted in tight formation as limbs swiftly fly in traditional body slaps and claps.

As the repertoire broadens, reflecting the diversification of the company over the years, this quality of physical strength, power, pride, rhythm and speed continues to underpin the movement. It develops into expansive, stage-spanning leaps, dancers corkscrewing across the stage with sudden thrusts of energy ejected from their bodies.

Ieremia’s choreography is essentially abstract but he shares with the audience his stories and inspirations — childhood, family, his Samoan heritage — and illuminates his musical choices, ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Sesame Street to Bach. It’s highly technical, accessible and stylish. This is a long overdue debut.

Until Friday (0131 623 3030, assemblyfestival.com)

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