Expanding Foam, choreographed and performed by Gabriella Catalano and Paolo Rosini, is first rate. It is eloquently danced with meticulous attention to choreographic detail. The duets have a silky, elastic quality. There are some delicious moments when their bodies seem to merge: sharing each other's breath and physicality. Catalano and Rosini finely tune beautiful technique with innovative choreography. The live music really gives this piece the edge. The conversation between the dancers and musicians is spellbinding; they create a shared language which opens the door to the ebb and flow of our unconscious. This is an exquisitely crafted work that intertwines movement, music and design to powerful effect.
Philippa Newis
The slightly menacing busts of two men’s heads appear to be floating in space. They have a quizzical expression. In juxtaposition to those disembodied sculptures are the dancers’ grounded bodies, naked from the waist up, with heads shrouded in white cloth. Gabriella Catalano and Paolo Rosini certainly set up an obscure Freudian dream scenario in which they pass through phases of entrapment, frustration and release; surfing over each other’s bodies in seamlessly fluid contact, they become pliable material that can expand and contract in the space. But they are cruel to each other. While visually exquisite in terms of sculptural awareness and luscious movement, Expanding Foam is emotionally tough, cold and disorientating – rather like a troubling dream.
Josephine Leask
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