Is it cheating to set your show to the work of Nina Simone? And not just any old Nina Simone, but a selection that includes numbers from her legendary 1976 Montreux concert, in which she chastised the audience and argued with the songs, her voice mumbling then soaring. As every choreographer knows, great music can do the emotional heavy lifting for you, but you have to know how to handle it, how to give the music space, to meet its vulnerability and its virtuosity with the bodies on stage.
Mathieu Geffré and his company Rendez-Vous Dance have the right instincts. What Songs May Do... is a duet for two men, Oliver Chapman and Paolo Pisarra, wearing smart shirts and natty moustaches, who move with the torrent of Simone’s piano as much as the sentiment of a lyric, the song is a third partner in a relationship that already looks like the ultimate “it’s complicated” situation.
