If you have ever longed to convert a traditionalist friend to the delights of modern dance, Russell Maliphant’s ten-year retrospective Two: Four: Ten: at the Coliseum might just convert the Luddite. The award-winning choreographer and performer presents a quartet of contemporary works: Knot; Sheer; Two x Two; and Critical Mass; interpreted by a stellar cast, in conjunction with long-term collaborator, lighting designer Michael Hulls. The programme is slight, and a little unbalanced in term of time allocation, but our attention never falters because the dancing is elegant and articulate, and Hulls’ resourceful illumination (even at its most shadowy) constitutes a work of art in itself.
     Daniel Proietto and Ivan Putrov interpret Knot, throwing ‘origami’ shapes through attenuated limbs or dazzling with powerful lifts and joyous spins and twists. At turns tense or pliant, their interaction is always empathetic – punctuated by tribal drumbeats.
     Husband and wife dance partners, Thomas Edur and Agnes Oaks are the charismatic stars of Sheer, a physical poem ingeniously interpreting the intimacy of lovers. This is a joy to behold: like latter-day incarnations of Orpheus and Euridice, the pair explore bittersweet anger, passion and yearning. Echoes of classical ballet underpin waltz and tango in a series of emotive movements of breath-taking intensity.
     Two x Two was met with cheers at its climax and the combination of Dana Fouras and Daniel Proietto produce a powerful alchemy. Dervish like, the impassioned couple wheeled and careered about the stage like jugglers and fire-eaters. At one point, their limbs whirled at such a pace that areas of bare flesh vibrated with strobe-like intensity thanks to Hulls’ ingenuity.
     Critical Mass strives towards the impossible – close-contact male dancers weaving magic in their wake, without overly homoerotic undertones. Adam Cooper and Russell Maliphant are brothers-in-arms in this complex, procrastinated three-part work. A techno sound-track and workman clothing accompany martial art moves and matey camaraderie. Later the men appear more combatitive, before polarising in apparently male-female autonomy - the point of which is unclear. Critical Mass is entrancing to watch but adds little to the iconoclastic dance canon explored by Maliphant earlier in the programme.
     Inevitably, this company of talented shape-shifters must plough the same furrow at times, and ideas can become repetitive. However, the sheer inter-connection, symmetry and grace of pure gesture are testament to Maliphant’s vision.
Caroline Kellett Fraysse