Still Standing You: So Much FUN!

I'd really like come comments on this one because I liked it so much that I wonder if it's just me. I loved everything about this piece, from the stand-up type intro to the general silliness and occasional gross-ness that ensued, to the touchingly beautiful body-images. I found Pieter Ampe and Guilherme Garrido's performance refreshing, open and engaging.

Still Standing You is a strange mix of contemporary dance, comedic physical theatre and a brotherly wrestling match. This exploration of masculine relationships has an innocence and curiosity to it that makes it more like watching children on a playground than a formal dance piece. The honesty and lack of artifice in their interactions is completely riveting.

Something I personally loved was the way they used sound. Not sound effects, but communicative sound, words, grunts, general noise making. I'm a very vocal person, so this really resonated with me and I thought it added to the playfulness of the piece. More importantly it broke the “us and them” stylization that often comes with dance. These weren't two representational bodies making pictures or portraying ideas, these were two human beings, alive and interacting with each other and with the audience. It was compelling.

In the talk-back the artists were eloquent about their work. The duo have a refreshing aesthetic approach. Ampe mentioned sculpture and how they like to use marks on their bodies and the contrast of the shades of their skin; that they like to present opportunities for the audience to project their own emotions and thoughts on to them. It made me think of bodyscapes, evocative, ambiguous and free to interpretation.

All in all I felt that Still Standing You was a frank, playful celebration of masculinity and the range of concepts that can cover. A delightful experience.