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Seamus Heaney’s articulation of “the strain of being in two places at once, of needing to accommodate two opposing conditions of truthfulness simultaneously” provides the grounding for Liz Roche’s new dance piece at Project Arts Centre. Neither Either is the second co-production between Belfast-based Maiden Voyage Dance and Dublin’s Liz Roche Company following Senses in 2002. The performance opens with the letters of Heaney’s words in individual picture frames lined across a blank stage. Lit by two banks of stage lights, the letters are soon spirited off in pairs by two male dancers and two female dancers from two collaborating companies based in two separate cities. The symmetry of the piece is immediately apparent and is central to the dance’s exploration of dual identity. What follows is a highly physical work in which the four dancers constantly respond to one another’s actions. Fleeting motifs are passed between them, whilst hints of relationships drift in and out, often upsetting the fragile balance of the stage. Only towards the end of the piece does any sense of harmony emerge as all four dance together in synchronization.

Neil Martin’s highly sensitive two-piano score dictates the pace of the piece. Often graceful, occasionally aggressively discordant, it shifts the dance between mellow conversation and argument. Infrequent spoken word sections that reference Carl Jung reflect Roche’s introspective interest, whilst two metal pylons transecting overhead that form a cross shape on the stage when lit, seem to ask questions of religion’s place in a split Irish identity. Roche’s piece is as visually fascinating as it is thought provoking. It is both technically astute and constantly engaging – qualities befitting its broad scope and ambitious subject matter.

 

Neither Either will show at Dance Limerick, Limerick 27 November