Prolonged cheers greeted Sabine Kupferberg, Gioconda Barbuto, David Krugel, Gerard Lemaitre and Egon Madsen after the first of two performances by Nederlands Dans Theatre III at the Cork Opera House last Friday. Nothing the Firkin Crane could have done for its Older People in Dance programme could prove more triumphantly that a dancer's grace, agility and power to convey emotion and humour is not limited by age, nor better show how a superb choreographer can showcase these talented over-40s, delighting and evoking shouts of laughter from the young people who made up half the audience.
Brilliantly staged, using only perfect lighting, costuming and a few chairs with, in the final piece, a screen covering half the stage, it is significant that Jiri Kylian not only choreographed all three pieces but was also responsible for staging and lighting (together with either Tom Bevoort or Henk Palmers) and costuming (together with Joke Visser).
Trompe L'Oeil used music by Monteverdi, Steve Reich, Bach, Tchaikowski, Thomas Morley and something called Zap Mama to send up delightfully - amongst other things - mechanical figures on music boxes or clock towers, the Marseillaise, irreverently mimed by 62-year-old Lemaitre, Swan Lake and madrigal singing, proving again that only those who perform something really well can mock it successfully.
To music by Stockhausen, Compass searched for the pivotal point of existence within and without a space created by encircling chairs, while a constantly rotating ball represented the mathematical boundary. It was Away Alone, however, with music which included Bach and John Cage, that brought the house down with the hilarious and apparently gravity-defying movement of its three dancers.