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“MERLIN” is an original 60-minute interpretive dance piece which was created and performed by the Iseli-Chiodi Dance Company in the Project Arts Centre from 28th – 30th March. Boasting an international cast of dancers and an original soundtrack, the performance aims to engage with abstract, often complex ideas through dance and through the lense of the semi-mythical figure of Merlin. The Iseli-Chiodi Dance Company builds on the success of its 2016 show “REVOLVER” and Dublin Fringe Festival’s “Fit/Misfit”. The company also coordinates the Tipperary Dance Platform’s International Dance Festival, one of the biggest  dance events in Ireland.

 

This is a challenging piece, both in terms of its content and its presentation. Yet, Jazmin Chiodi and Alexandre Iseli—founders of the dance company and artistic leads of the project—are able  to mix moments of real humour with more serious material on war, rape and control. Time, both cyclical and linear—sacred and profane—plays a fundamental role in this performance. Musical and visual motifs repeat themselves as the piece engages with history and symbolically reenacts what seem to be major historical events. Yet, this is a history told through the lens of Merlin, a figure of mystery and contradiction, associated both with the Europe’s ancient past and with Arthur’s colonising, modernising project of translatio imperii. Indeed, Pierre Canitrot’s mystical, pagan-influenced costumes imply a focus on control in the colonial sense, just as individual characters appear to have their freedom curbed by antagonists throughout. The individual is implicated in wider trends, just as the entire performance is filtered through the singular persona of Merlin.

 

This is some of the meaning the audience members could possibly glean from what was at times an overwhelming experience. Little about the performance seems immediately graspable and one should not try too hard to make sense of anything right away. Rather, allow the astounding talent of these dancers—Clara Protar, Kiko López, Sarah Ryan, Jazmin Chiodi and Alexandre Iseli—to wash over you. The spectacle of the dancers is supplemented well by Oscar Mascareñas’ often playful original score and Kevin Smith’s stark lighting design. However, almost half of the piece involves no more than a dancers performing in total silence and this is when the audience feels most captivated, though the utterly silent ‘bringing up the bodies’ sequence was certainly too long.

 

One of the things that abstract, non-verbal art can do is present complex ideas in ways that straightforward explanation can’t. MERLIN does this successfully, managing to entertain, to demonstrate great artistic value, and to really move its audience at the same time.