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SummerWorks review: Ruin Road

RUIN ROAD by Jane Alison McKinney (Wild Rabbit dance projects/SummerWorks). At The Theatre Centre Franco Boni Theatre. Aug 6 at 8:15 pm, Aug 7 at 9:15 pm, Aug 9 at 6:15 pm, Aug 11 at 6:15 pm, Aug 12 at 3:45 pm, Aug 13 at 6:30 pm. See listing. Rating: NNNN

If dark and brooding contemporary dance is your thing, take a trip down dancer and choreographer Jane Alison McKinneys Ruin Road.

The hour-long performance finds McKinney, Naishi Wang and Kathia Wittenborn playing people seemingly trapped in an oppressive labyrinth conjured only through halting world-weary movements, and a distorted, hypnotically-repetitive industrial techno soundscape.

The result is a bleak vision of life in a severe, unforgiving environment: the trio stagger slowly and separately in halting steps like marionettes with slack strings, and get pushed around as if by some violent invisible force, only to then fold their bodies into unsettling contorted shapes conveying extreme exhaustion, anxiety and despair.

Later, their movements evolve to include visually intriguing and well-lit group shakes, and animalistic play-fighting emphasizing the theme of interdependence.

The overarching vision is dystopic to the extreme, but it is very effectively rendered by the strong ensemble.

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