It starts with a spark. Dark figures strike matches, light candles. The heat makes the sculptures crackle and click and the room is filled by music with a mind of its own – yet rhythmic enough for the dance to begin its slow build. Until crunching machine beats make everything geometric.
A Small Prometheus revolves around two central ideas: the consequence of the flame and the dance of order and chaos. The result is a work that veers from incredible stillness to frenetic detail. At one point we are in the dark, five dancers in pose or match striking trance; next we are mathematical and adrenalised. Over the hour these choreographic and structural motifs are repeated and adjusted, each version a slant on the ever-turbulent interplay of cause and effect.
What really powers this show is Robin Fox's beguiling soundscape. With everything from struck matches to boiling kettles woven into its insistent heartbeat, the crash of messy reality and imagined exactness is played out with every shift in emphasis.
Stephanie Lake's lithe and exacting choreography sets the tone with its snake-like ability to change tempo and theme in a blink. It creates a fluidity that initially seems at odds with the fire motif and the more architectural parts of the dance, but helps to make A Small Prometheus a sizzling, organic beast.
