Although the pandemic scuppered some plans for Candoco – such as those for its 30th anniversary last year – it also gave rise to new ones. To date, the company of disabled and non-disabled dancers has generally commissioned works by established choreographers; In Side Out, an intimate evening of new work, now opens up the artistic direction to newer choreographers and to disabled artists themselves.
As yet, it feels like an exploratory step rather than a decisive move. Seke Chimutengwende’s In Worlds Unknown weaves dance with poetry, its five performers speaking separate stanzas (one in sign language) as the corresponding text is screened behind them. To Jamie McCarthy’s textured score, the choreography sets the dancers in flurries and ripples. Movement, music, text, voice and signing afford many ways to “enter” the piece, but the non sequitur stanzas and density of poetic images suck energy from the other elements; it all feels like too much to process.
