NULLIUS IN VERBA by the company (Rebel Yell). At the Al Green Theatre. July 9 at 1 pm, July 11 at 5:15 pm, July 13 at 2:15 pm, July 14 at 9:45 pm. See listing. Rating: NNN
Nullius In Verba is Latin for “no one’s word” and reflects the company’s wish for audiences to interpret the three dance works on this program as they see fit.
Here goes. The stated theme of power is evident in both works by Mateo Galindo Torres. In Leaving Room, Robyn Noftall and Will Hamilton slowly dress, then conduct a dance of interchanging domination and resistance. The action has a casual, seemingly un-technical style that could be confusing for Fringers looking for “dance” content. But the offhandedness may grow on you if you don’t overthink it.
A more ritualistic ethos permeates Torres’s second piece with Noftall and Raine Kearns. Masked and clad in long white skirts, the pair circle each other enacting a rhythmic expression of strength and vitality.
A third work, choreographed by Noftall and Hamilton, is a more sprawling, bleak (with a soundscape of howling wind) and much less legible examination of the question “If you were the most powerful person in the world, what would you do?”
This program doesn’t pretend to be for everyone but, like most contemporary dance, rewards attention with periodic, very personal returns.
