Place Resolution 2025 - works by Lucy Turner, Athena Choi-Ha Leung and Maria Garcia

A third sampling of the Place Resolution festival and three works varying from the really professional to the downright confusing…

The Place’s generic picture for this show. Photo © The Place.

Place Resolution festival
Lucy Turner: Vitruvian Man
Athena Choi-Ha Leung: Barbie’s World
Maria Garcia: Bees and Beasts and the Horrish FishTales
★★★✰✰
23 Jan 2025
London, The Place
theplace.org.uk

Resolution is The Place’s annual festival of new choreography and performance works by emerging artists. This review was originally commissioned by The Place as part of Resolution Review, where established dance writers are paired with new writers (interested in writing about dance) to cover each night of the festival. The original review on this page (and its companion review) can be found at: https://theplace.org.uk/blogs-stories/thu-23-jan-2

Lucy Turner’s Vitruvian Man (co-choreographed by Sonny Cwynarski) is presented as an exploration of human proportions and fine art’s often idealistic interpretation. The title is derived from da Vinci’s famous drawing of a classical figure trapped within a square and circle. Danced by them both, in reality, it encompassed a much broader range of movement, but frequently returned to the dancers closely examining their individual fingers and arms. And sadly, after a while, that becomes tedious rather than absorbing. But occasionally Cwynarski would let rip in some fabulous cartwheels and spins, and I wanted more of that excellence. I also appreciated a section where they cast gorgeous shadows on the back wall, if the flapping costumes were not always supportive of the movements’ inherent clarity. A work of highs and lows.

By some margin, the best and sharpest dancing of the evening came from Yochen Chiu, Christina Lai and Ying Yen Wang in Athena Choi-Ha Leung’s Barbie’s World. It offers a private glimpse into East Asian girls and teenagers simply hanging out and having a good time without boys/Ken. To often catchy pop music, the ever-smiling dancers frequently partner with one another and knot their limbs in clever ways, as well as shimmying and freely noodling. Some notable experiments with high heels are both amusing and, like everything in Barbie, highly choreographed with precision timing that delivers an apparently casual and carefree atmosphere. Good costumes from Siyu Wan differentiated the dancers’ personalities — it’s a make-believe yet real world. However, there was also a voyeuristic aspect, like seeing Jane Fonda in Barbarella. A thoughtful, clever and ultimately highly professional work. Bravo.

I’m not at all sure what to make of Maria Garcia’s Bees and Beasts and the Horrish FishTales, an absurd and surreal tragicomedy about “pain, pollination, and captivity.” Performed by Garcia and Ruby Antonowicz-Behnan, it had an ad hoc feel, despite featuring prepared monologues about fish, bees and the female reproductive system, all played out in front of a professional video of Garcia unconsciously floating in the sea. Occasionally funny, it was a work that bewildered and flummoxed rather than providing illumination or full entertainment. It may have been a telling perspective on what it’s like to have endometriosis or female reproductive problems, but if so, its billing really needs to be less opaque. Count me “confused of Euston.”