I want to capture and bottle the incredible energy and joy packed into a one-hour performance from Amala Dianor’s dance troupe in DUB.
The programme states that it “explores how today’s globally connected youth has embraced the legacy of hip-hop culture to forge new choreographic identities.”
Franco-Senegalese Dianor travelled across continents seeking out the underground world of urban dance and also the appropriation of street styles used in social media videos, where “movements are reimagined, extended, and exchanged.”
The dark stage is set with a single doorway brightly lit in neon. To one side is an array of old-fashioned travel trunks. Also on stage is DJ Awir Leon, who provides the electronic (dub) music, with random additions of drumbeats and that heavy back vibe you’ll remember from early reggae.
Testimony to human flexibility
Out from the door comes one solo South Asian dancer, incorporating traditional Indian dance steps and hand movements (his hands are coloured red). One by one more dancers enter the stage, each bringing a new style – from classic hip-hop and breakdance, to Latin moves and African tribal steps – but blending in with the original dancer.
The multi-ethnic group move with huge energy, jumping and swooping, diving to the floor or crossing the stage with perfect synchronicity. There’s ‘whacking’, ‘dancehall’, ‘jookin’ and ‘pantsula’. It’s a melange of dance appropriation neatly and seamlessly melded together.
There is fast and fancy footwork and the sort of moves I’ve seen my teens try to imitate from TikTok videos.
This is also a testimony to what the human body can do. Some of the performers are so liquid you feel they must be made of rubber, so elastic are their movements. And yet it is not random but highly choreographed, as they move in a tight group across the dancefloor.
There are times when there is no music, just the beat of stamping feet. There’s humour too, as they perform snippets of different dance styles to each other.
Striking stage set up
Later in the performance, the fantastic stage created by Grègoire Korganow is revealed.
Little box rooms outlined by neon lights are stacked atop each other like a shabby apartment block from a city anywhere in the world, and the street outside. The dancers appear alone and in smaller groups in each room.
A fantastic set of stacked neon rooms created by Grègoire Korganow gives the stage a ‘street’ feel © Photo credit: Pierre Gondard
Some rooms are stark, others lit by neon or fluorescent paint. One is a balcony, another decorated in loud printed wallpaper.
The dancers too have changed costumes. The South Asian performer is dressed in heels and a revealing red skirt. Some have fluorescent clothing, whilst others are in urban style hooded streetwear, long coats and bucket hats.
The lights flicker from room to room, and the dancers come alive, sometimes all squashed together in one room like a house party or a Shebeen. They are so close you think they’ll collide, but they never do.
The hottest club night
The music’s club vibe, the bright lights that sometimes flash across the audience, and the sheer joy of the dancers, make you want to take to the dancefloor yourself.
But I wouldn’t recommend you try these moves, as you can see the sheer muscle power used, and feel the energy radiating from the performers.
If you haven’t been clubbing or to a dance party for a long time (like the author), you’ll feel like you’ve had an exclusive invite to the hottest place in town.
Definitely worth seeing to brighten up a dull winter, DUB will be performed again on Wednesday, 12 February at 20.00 at the Grand Theatre Luxembourg.
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