NDCWales, Folk Review ★★★★★

National Dance Company Wales was formed in 1983 under the name of Diversions. Since then the company has evolved, now offering a wide range of engagement opportunities, professional development and classes as well as annual tours of mixed bills. The current triple bill, Folk, explores stories drawn from the ground on which we build communities.

Marcos Marau’s Tundra forms the centrepiece of the programme, with its hypnotic choreography and multi-coloured costumes from Angharad Matthews. It’s a heavy hitter that provides NDCWales with a truly unique work, unlike that of any other contemporary company.

It features a stripped back landscape with influences of Russian folk dancing present in the costuming. Masterful fluidity is required as the dancers repeatedly form patterns with their hands, creating serpent-like creatures that disappear and reappear throughout. The precision required for the full thirty minutes stint makes this an incredibly demanding work, where one limb out of place could destroy the illusion and serenity Morau’s piece works hard to achieve.

NDCWales, Tundra, photo Rhys Cozen
As impressive as it is, Tundra never really goes anywhere. It’s a fantastic optical illusion and presents a challenge to the company’s fine dancers, but between the choreographic highlights, it rubs along uneventfully. Morau’s musical choices do not offer much diversity so there are no notable gear changes.

Kat Collings is particularly eye-catching as the smallest figure in the eight dancer lineup. Collings holds an intensity in her gaze, which gives her a wonderful stage presence. She really drives the choreography and is frequently relied upon to begin the weaving patterns and armography that kick-starts everyone else, making her pivotal to Tundra’s momentum.

Folk is the theatrical opener from Artistic Director Caroline Finn. Its fairytale setting seems innocent enough, but Folk has a darker side.

A lone villager sweeps leaves into a pile, as other villagers sit to the side, frozen in time, with unnatural grins fixed on their faces. The man finishes sweeping his leaves and joins them, the same grin plastered on his face. It’s two minutes of uncomfortable silence before the grins fade, a woman emerges from the pile of leaves, and the action begins as we see the community break off into sub-sections.

The choreography is well-drilled and comes in powerful bursts, as the community single out misfits before starting over again. The women are often hysterical and the onlookers peer at them judgmentally. It’s a warp-speed paced work full of well-constructed ideas and a touch of the surreal that keeps the audience engaged from start to finish. Those leaves never stay neatly piled for long before a mighty kick of a leg or the sweep of an arm destroys the order.

Mario Bermudez-Gil Atalaÿ, a new work for the Spring 2018 tour, completes the bill. It’s an intense work, complemented by Joe Fletcher’s atmospheric lighting.The musical choices suggest a more Eastern influence, its four dancers dressed in black smocks with thick leather belts.

The two men (Ed Myhill and Matthew Pritchard) are particularly impressive as they face off against each other. In one moment, there is silence broken only by the two breathing heavily, eyes fixed on each other. The intensity is broken by interplay between the four, and tightly choreographed segments charged with power and force. One cannot fault the dancers and their athleticism here, but Atalaÿ feels the least fitting into the theme of community.

With only two locations left on the current tour, the dancers of NDCWales perform this triple bill with confidence and commitment. They deliver work that is slick and crisp and more than worth your attention, if you can ignore the lack of cohesion between the three pieces on offer.