The section I most enjoyed in Irish Modern Dance Theatre's NOUS, The Loss of the Winds, was when Frederic Dugied's lighting, suspended from metal scaffolding, was extinguished so that only the luminous painted boots of the six dancers could be seen flying around the auditorium of the SFX Centre, with the entire audience seated on the stage. When the dancers were visible, the most attractive of French choreographer Fabrice Dugied's childhood recollections - a tribute to Twyla Tharp, with whom he trained - showed them wind-blown, arms flailing as they spun like weathervanes in a gale.
Otherwise the work seemed weighed down with props as people used portable clothes racks like climbing frames, the boys struggled for mastery, yoked together in body harnesses, the sexes exchanged clothes, people lay beneath a sheet of glass and John Scott sang a series of unconnected ballads and pops of yesteryear. The beautiful movement of Justine Doswell and Joanna Banks compensated for the overlong sequences.
The music of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Michael Brook was welcome after so much of the performance had been in silence. The show was colourfully costumed by Helen McCusker.
Concludes tomorrow night; matinee at 1.15 today.