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| Alfonso Baron and Luciano Rosso in Un Poyo Rojo. Photo Ishka Michocka |
Un Poyo Rojo.
Choreographed by Hermes Gaido. Choreographed by Nicolas Poggi and Luciano Rosso. AC Arts – Main Theatre. Adelaide Festival 2019
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins.
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| Alfonso Rojo and Luciano Rosso.Photo: Ishka Michocka |
Sport meets dance in a side-splitting display of physical
surprise and invention. Athleticism grapples with contemporary dance.in Un Poyo Rojo (The Red Rooster), a
thrilling and hilarious dance work from Argentina. Nicolas Poggi and Luciano
Rosso’s choreography invents a new and thrilling dance lexicon, leaping from
the imaginative flights of comic originality. In a sweaty men’s locker room,
two men face off in a macho ritual of one-upmanship in a phenomenal display of
physical agility, lightning speed martial arts and parodied ballet moves. Under
the direction of Hermes Gaido, Alfonso Baron and Luciano Rosso engage in an
athletic contest of supremacy and one–upmanship Action and counteraction
struggle for supremacy in a combination of physical theatre, martial arts, contemporary
street moves and parodied ballet moves. Their agility and segmentation of separate
parts of the body create a comical rivalry as each dancer twists, bends, turns,
pirouettes and slides to outshine his rival’s moves. Their confrontations are hilarious This is dance-up comedy
extraordinaire, and an audience erupts into laughter at each feat of physical
strength and corporeal contact. In a stunning display of athleticism, they
slither and slide, wrap limbs around each other, preen like peacocks at a mating ritual and lock
themselves into the grip of wrestlers. It is all done to comical effect.
Masculinity and femininity are held to ridicule in Luciano Rosso’s posturing
and Baron’s seductive sidling. Roles reverse and both dancers swap gender until
the competition transmogrifies into an elaborate courtship in which rooster and
hen play out their mating ritual.
Teasing and testing gradually turns
to a more sensual flirtation. Lips interlock in surprised attraction. The
seduction is almost complete and the ritual continues to the sound of live
radio, switching from channel to channel and song to song. The dance sweeps
into the sphere of improvised movement, inspired by the unexpected sounds of
the live radio accompaniment. Rosso sits astride a bench, displaying his unique
skill as he “plays” a number of cigarettes protruding from mouth and ears. It
is an hilarious symphony of cigarette notes. Gradually the cockfight turns to a
more flirtatious dance of seduction and eroticism. Stereotype is vanquished and
the myth of men’s stuff in testosterone- fuelled change rooms is turned upside
down and inside out in this explosion of vitality and sensuality.
But wait! There’s more. As a high
camp send-up encore, Rosso performs his hysterically funny solo accompaniment
to the Spice Girls “If You Wanna Be My Lover”.
Eyes twitch, limbs jerk, and Rosso’s body become
an orchestra of jerk and twitch to the rhythm of the music. Un Poyo Rojo is mockery in
motion, bursting with Argentine exuberance . YouTube if you need to. Un Poyo Rojo is the perfect remedy to
wipe away the gloom.
