Review: THE BELT- PAST & FUTURE, Coronet Theatre

I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again…but what The Coronet Theatre is doing feels new, relevant and exciting. Currently on show is The Belt - Past & Future by Korea's Ambiguous Dance Company. The work is The Coronet's first-ever site-specific event, and I think it's an absolute corker.

The happening is split into two sections; Past - a 50 minute site-specific exploration of the whole theatre, from basement to rooftop, and then Future - a one hour piece on the mainstage.

The overall premise is about juxtaposition and connection if that's possible? And I believe it is. Ambiguous (founded by choreographer Boram Kim and dancer Kyeongmin Jang in 2008) wanted to acknowledge the period The Coronet was built (1898), and bring who they are to it. So a meeting of the Industrial Revolution and the ever-evolving new Korea.

Of course, one can overthink meaning, and the name of the company suggests that we shouldn't even bother. But for me, there was definitely a moment where I thought "By Jove they've done it!"

The Past experience is a total trip. The audience is split into five groups and separately led around the theatre by an usher. Winding staircases, attic room, roof cupola, dingy basement and theatre bar with civilian punters are the spaces explored, and each venue has its own five minute performance. Initially this felt random, but then as the experience grew, so did my understanding of it. Or perhaps that's the bigger point about site-specific work; something, somewhere becomes an experience in itself, so in a way, what's done isn't necessarily the most important factor.

The Cupola vignette was full of dusk light and big movement strokes, the basement had a physical violence tone and the boiler room was part industry/part downtown Seoul club absolutely kicking off. This was the "By Jove" moment. One male dancer in sequins looking like he'd time travelled from The Haçienda, doing simple clubbing dance moves goading his small audience to join in. And we did.

In a millisecond I took in what was happening; sequins, hard house, technicolour disco lights, gestural movement, crumbling walls, aggressive iron heating (I think) contraptions and irresistible, youthful joy exuded by the clubbing master. I thought they've done it; I feel nowhere specific but absolutely somewhere between the past of the building and the present/future of this young man's reality. Ambiguously clever.

The mainstage work is an absolute party. It felt like 60 minutes of hard house and hard dancing perpetually building. There's maybe one or two sections of relenting, but they don't last for long and the return seems more pumped than before.

The cast of eight look like a mix of Balenciaga 2024 and the New Romantics of the 1970s; lots of layers, lace and enough flesh to be suggestive.

The movement is simple, repetitive and what you'd find in the average B-Boy battle or club dance floor around 2am, and with the odd sissonne and pirouette thrown in for good measure! But don't be mistaken; it's all intricate, precise and choreographed within an inch of its life. Boram Kim knows how to work structure, and uses patterning, both spatially and in relation to phrasing to keep the basic content continually re-emerging as a new proposition.

Dare I say I started to wane in the last 5-10 minutes…but even if I did, it didn't last for long, as the energy and lifesource radiating from the stage can't be underestimated. What extraordinary dancers, encapsulating the new Korea of now. And now is the notion I took away; The Belt - Past & Future feels very zeitgeist. Whatever that might mean to you.

The Belt - Past & Future runs at the Coronet Theatre until September 14 

Main Photo Credit: Tristram Kenton

 

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