Magpies, as you know, like to surround themselves with other people's bright, shiny treasures. Probe - the multi-talented duo of Antonia Grove and Theo Clinkard - extends its magpie tendencies towards choreographic gems. Seven of them, in this eclectic programme: five duets and two solos, all watchable, all performed with a lovely enthusiasm as well as high-powered technical finesse, but some proving more dazzling than others.
The sight of Clinkard in brocade flares brought muffled giggles, but his performance of Trisha Brown's Accumulation (1971), a minimalist exercise that adds on simple moves, such as thumb twists and hip shunts, was witty in all the right offbeat ways. Stephen Frear's Fred'n'Ginger pastiche, Last laugh, with Astaire singing the Gershwin number, was a treat, a classy bit of Broadway hoofing that found Grove and Clinkard tapping and waltzing like Busby Berkeley troupers. Before that, the duo served up one of Charles Linehan's subtle studies in fragmenting relationships, A Way Now, where casual strolling steps and out-stretched arms lead to a brief meeting of paths, of bodies, before tensions build and the ways part again.
Domestic dysfunction rages and girns, mugs and wrenches through Yasmeen Godder's I feel funny today, and though again it's danced with attractive verve, it's so protracted one feels like joining in the blood-curdling yowings of Haino Keiji's music. So, hurrah for the sly humours of This (by New Art Club), with its running commentary of what's been done - and done wrong - in a duet of quite massive pretensions.
And for Grove's prowly, street-cool delivery of Scag (1993), a solo created for himself by the late Jeremy James. Mark Bruce's The sky or a bird ended the collection on a moody Gothic note - more raven than magpie - but showcasing yet another intriguing aspect of Probe's versatility. Lucky Dundee: other venues, please follow suit. Soon.
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