Sometimes choreographers use darkness to hide. Gloomy lighting, claustrophobic sound design and heavy mood can stylishly cover up a lack of clear ideas with faux gravity. And yet for choreographer Botis Seva, who started out dancing hip-hop in east London and now tours to acclaim across Europe, that darkness has become his cosmos and his material.
The eerie echoes, whispers and intense frequencies of Torben Sylvest’s electronic soundscore are paired with Tom Visser’s always atmospheric lighting. On the dim, hazy stage Visser finds different timbres of shadow and sudden switches of tone, and never enough wattage to clearly illuminate faces or costumes. Amid all this, Seva’s dance is like the workings of the subconscious.
