Dream City by De Dansers at Unicorn Theatre
5
Reviewer's Rating

Dance like nobody is watching.

Dream City brings together a cast of very talented musicians and dancers, who put into play the idea of music and dance as a “mode of expression” in the most innovative and youthful fashion, echoing each other in the exploration of the wide range of possibilities offered by their respective medium.

Introducing the theme of the show with vocal and instrumental snoring, we enter into the blurry world in between dream and reality through a solo dance act, together clumsy and extremely skilful, as the performance pushes the body and balance possibilities to its limits. With a very dynamic choreography, the performance includes two male dancers and three female dancers, interacting in a range of senses and emotions, in turn tender and humoristic. The different body limbs and parts seem to sometimes acquire a life of their own!

The decor is, like the show, fresh and colourful, with a wide range of clothes hung on a long trail, the musicians set up on a stage, with an array of musical instruments, such as  rain-stick, harmonica, piano, drum kit, electric guitar. The music is original with an improvisation quality which is liberating both for the audience and the dancers’ inventiveness.

The show subtly asks about group inclusion and exclusion, about what it is that constitutes communication: as the singer experimentally uses his voice to articulate an imaginary language and the dancers bounce off each other, we realise that communication is far more than just verbal: the body and touch can speak too. In a society where the use of our thumbs seems to acquire a certain monopoly, the performance’s demonstration of the human potential for creativity, both musical and physical, is together refreshing and reassuring: all is not lost, just yet.