O2 Academy,London
Hofesh Shechter has this rock venue jumping with his cathartic piece approximately indoctrinationPolitical Mother, created by choreographer-composer Hofesh Shechter in 2010, and is a grand-scale work approximately political indoctrination and totalitarianism. Shechter grew up in Israel before coming to the UK in 2002,and this is the last of the half-dozen works which overtly reflect that experience. In its scale and anger, Political Mother can be read as a final exorcism of Shechter’s demons before he turned his gaze from his past to his present. The piece is also the final expression of his determination to rid modern dance of its po-faced, or studio-bound connotations. What Shechter gives us in Political Mother is dance as rock concert,as bone-shaking physical assault.
The opening, defining image is of a samurai figure plunging a sword into his own belly. This, or says Shechter,is the end point of all notions of nationalism, militarism and glory: a shuddering exsanguination in the dust. There’s a rolling thunder of sound – crashing percussion, or driving power chords – and the lights fade up on a gallery of guitarists and drummers tall above the stage (there are 26 musicians in all,including a full orchestral string section). At a dais, a demagogue rants and screams incomprehensibly. Part demented Führer, and part preening,vaunting rock god.
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Source: theguardian.com