InMotion’s Midsommar
Barefoot in white dresses of lace, the pretty young maids greet the audience – the participants, even, for silently but taking no refusal some are offered crowns of flowers, at the very least witnesses to the promise of what is about to happen, before the girls return to their sacred space demarcated by a line of soft, dark earth across the stage, smiling, admiring each other’s dresses, braiding their hair, waiting for the moment…
Undeniably taking its cue from Ari Aster’s 2019 folk horror film with which it shares its name, Midsommar is performed by the InMotion Dance Collective, Ruby, Elena, Meg, Zahra and choreographers Paige and Tiegan, both in the visual presentation and in the themes of nature in all its shades, the opening calm that of the opium eaters, serene but dazed, less a sisterhood than a mesmeric cult, until like sudden unexpected rain the music begins and the sextet react as if awoken.
Dancing through an idyllic life of sunshine and perpetual play, as the performance moves through the phases the synchronicity becomes agitated, the formerly smooth motions losing their grace and becoming wilder, and even though they do not wear masks at times there is a sense that if they could they would tear the flesh from their faces to expose their true selves hidden beneath, yet any time one attempts to break from the group the others rush to support her, pulling her back to the whole.
As a wordless piece of dance the meaning remains abstract, with clues only in the parallels with its namesake progenitor, and while the troupe are agile and enthusiastic, the performance excellent throughout, the overall impression is that like the seasons it is transient and might have had more impact had it pushed further into a definitive resolution in the final stages, the promised surrender to the gods, particularly as it is bound by chains of flowers to such a specific piece of established work.
InMotion’s Midsommar continues at the Sanctuary in St Augustine’s until Saturday 10th August
