The reviews are in for Vortex, and the run ends tonight. HUMANHOOD's 55-minute dance piece has spent the week at Sadler's Wells East, where choreographers Julia Robert and Rudi Cole send their company spinning through near-darkness, haze and pinpoint spotlights to a pounding score led by Iain Armstrong. The critics agree on the craft. Aiden Bromley's lighting is praised in every review we could read in full, and the dancers' precision in the dark is widely admired. Where they part company is on how much of it an audience can actually see, and on whether the later sections keep the grip of the opening.
3.5 / 5 from 5 criticsThe verdict: five reviews so far, and every one carries a star rating: four stars from Everything Theatre and theatrereviews.design, three and a half from The Reviews Hub, and three from The Spy in the Stalls and The Stage, an average of 3.5 out of 5. The lighting is the common ground. The split is over the haze: one critic is happy to lose herself in it, while others find whole stretches too dark to follow and the second half less sure of where it is going.
What are critics saying about Vortex?
Everything Theatre
"Immersion in somatic sensuality through music and dance, which engages and perplexes."
Reviewer: Sheilina Somani
Sheilina Somani finds the piece absorbing, a slow build of light, rhythm and movement that at one point she likens to a warm sound bath. She warns that the dim, hazy stage asks a lot of anyone seated further back.
"With shamanic presence, he lifts the physical energy and emotional safety of this vortex…"
That line is for Rudi Cole, whose own entrance into the ensemble she sees as the evening's lift. The company's fluency, and the flowing costumes, win her over throughout.
theatrereviews.design
"Excellent dancers that take us on a spiritual journey…"
Reviewer: Will Prys-Jones
Will Prys-Jones admires the stamina of seven dancers carrying 55 minutes without an interval, and credits Iain Armstrong's soundscape and Aiden Bromley's lighting by name.
"It was a really good performance … with potential to become outstanding."
He reads it as a work driven by rhythm rather than story, and one pitched at audiences who already like physical contemporary dance.
The Reviews Hub
"Controlled Chaos"
Reviewer: Steven Wang
Steven Wang is impressed by how exactly the dancers land in each pool of light, and by drums and wind effects he can almost feel through the seat.
"HUMANHOOD’s Vortex brings a tornado onto the stage without the need for actual wind."
His reservations are about visibility: two hazy sections in a row he finds tiring to watch, and a late solo for a seventh dancer he calls a disappointment.
The Spy in the Stalls
"captivating and well worth experiencing"
Reviewer: Hannah Bothelton
Hannah Bothelton rates the opening chapter, with its images of colliding celestial bodies, as by far the strongest, and finds the ensemble's movement both sharp and fluid.
"Aiden Bromley’s lighting co-design is nothing short of spectacular"
She finds the ideas harder to grasp as the piece goes on and the pacing uneven, with a finale that sinks back to the floor just as it seems ready to let rip.
Read Hannah Bothelton’s full review at The Spy in the Stalls
Also reviewed by: The Stage (Siobhan Murphy, three stars, "Display of physical stamina"), whose review sits behind a paywall.
For more dance at the same address, see our roundups of Lost Dog's The Last Hamlet and Motionhouse's Hidden, both at Sadler's Wells East.
Vortex gives its final performance at Sadler's Wells East tonight, 14 November.
For more information, visit the official website.
