Review: 5 Soldiers
5 Soldiers
Fort George
ON the face of it, the worlds of the soldiers and the dancer are very different, but trust a choreographer with the insight of Rosie Kay to pick up on the similarities.
Both train hard and relentlessly to the point where physical feats impossible for the untrained seem effortless – and parade grounds work to a rhythm no less than any dance studio does.
And both soldiers and dancers could find their careers cut short by injury, although with soldiers there are many more ways to suffer an injury – or worse – than landing badly after a jump.
Kay, whose choreography featured in the film version of Proclaimers musical Sunshine on Leith, has even gone as far as to join an infantry battalion on exercise on Dartmoor in preparation for this piece, which deals less with the political implications of British military policy than the experience of being a soldier from parade ground to battlefield.
Performed not at the historic fort itself, but in a more recent concrete gym hall close to the firing ranges, the spartan setting actually worked to the advantage of the five dancers, giving the parade ground square bashing sequences that little bit of extra authenticity.
Like Kay, the five cast members – Luke Bradshaw, Reece Causton, Oliver Russell, Duncan Anderson and Shelley Eva Haden – also spent time with the army, which must have helped get used to all that jumping around in military fatigues.
To a background of bustling radio transmissions, the raw recruits psyche themselves up for what lies ahead, showing off with press ups and macho bravado before heading to the parade ground, feet hitting the floor to a tap dancer’s frantic beat as the NCO watches for any signs of weakness.
Kay also allows herself a smart visual pun as a soldier’s grasp of an invisible rifle transforms into a waltz with an invisible partner.
The discipline of training is followed by hedonistic release as a spot of leave allows the lads to throw off the constrictions of military life for drinking, dancing and unabashed pleasure.
At the same time, their female comrade Haden rediscovers her femininity as she slips out of her uniform, which leads the blokes to finally notice – and take a predatory interest in – the attractive woman at their side,
That interest leads onto a dance duet that is at times both aggressively sexual and tender while in the background the rough of tumble play of two male soldiers hints at other feelings and desires that must remain repressed.
Then it all gets more serious as our five recruits find themselves on the frontline in some far off land and inevitably face the brutal realities of war and its aftermath.
The lights fade on a powerful final image as a soldier crippled by an IED regains his pride and marches unsteadily on his stumps.
The end result that impresses not just in the athleticism of its dancers, but into the way it offers a new look into the soldier’s life and what these public servants endure to do the will of their political masters.
CM
