T.H.E Dance Company, Rethinking Co-Existence Review ★★★★★

The first thing to say is that the five dancers of T.H.E Dance Company are superb. The two men and five women are strong yet flexible, energy flowing through their every sinuous movement. They are a pleasure to watch; their material less so.

T.H.E is short for The Human Experience Dance Company, the full name of this contemporary ensemble from Singapore, founded 15 years ago by Kuik Swee Boon, who remains artistic director and principal choreographer.

The triple bill they brought to the Coronet, Rethinking Co-existence, purports to offer an Asian perspective on universal values. If only. Each of the three pieces comes weighted down by philosophical constructs outlined in abstruse programme notes, but barely discernible in the actual choreography, so that you can spend an inordinate amount to time trying to match concept and practice, before finally giving up.

They saved the best to last. Pure, choreographed by Kuik Swee Boon to a gently repetitive score by Jing Ng was performed by Billy Keohavong and Chang En. On a sombrely lit stage, and dressed in identical voile smocks, they crouch face to face, seemingly enraptured by each other. Hands reach out but stop short of touching. They copy each other’s movements. It’s as if they are connected by invisible strings, before finally removing the smocks, becoming individuals and walking away side by side. The blurb says the duet ‘examines the complexities of living together’, and for once the piece does exactly what it says on the tin.

It’s preceded by Present, by choreographer Kim Jae Duo, which would have been an amusing piece were it not set to a teeth-grindingly awful version of Ravel’s Bolero. Two men in bright red and blue velvet jackets and ties – Billy Keohavong and Klievert Mendoza – sit on chairs facing the back, upper body movements developing as the music builds up. Finally they jump out and face us from behind a table.Their coordination is awesome and they can be quite funny, but how any of that translates ‘a physical dialogue that discusses existence and being’ is beyond me.

The programme opens with the most obscure piece of the evening, Kwick Swee Boon’s Un-form. Danced around a long rectangular piece of astro-turf, which three dancers – Fiona Thng, Klievert Mendoza and Haruka Leilani Chan – spend an eternity unrolling, it’s billed as dealing with ‘personal and burning questions’ about the choreographer’s ‘role as an artist’, where the dancers ‘delve deep into their memories and experiences.’

None of that is apparent in practice, though the dancers, combining the deep pliés and lunges of Eastern martial arts with elastic torsos and long, flowing arms carry you along with the sheer power of their movement.