Dance Umbrella presents the UK debut of Andrea Peña & Artists’ with BOGOTÁ, which brings together ancient mythology, magical realism and baroque architecture. In this brutalist alternative world the queer body meets Colombian political heritage.
While all the publicity declares “nudity throughout” and the images suggest that this piece is going to be nude dancers, the reality is that they’re wearing body suits, dance belts, jock straps, G-Strings, leotards and shorts. Yes, there are a few boobs on display early on in the piece but they cover up as the performance progresses. Definitely one for false advertising via “trigger warnings”.
The set is a large scaffold structure upstage right, a wheeled access tower upstage left, a drop of plastic sheeting, some blocks to climb on and a hanging bundle of scrunched newspapers in black plastic bin bags.
The dancers crawl in and around the scaffolding and move the access tower around the stage. Thankfully nobody who was dragging slipped and got wheeled over. There are many “drops” to the floor so half of the company are wearing branded black knee pads, one with a pair of white knee pads.
The sound starts with the predictable dialogue voice-over and then is 35 minutes of noise. There was a little bit of music for a few mins which then faded out returning to the noises. A military march later on, a bit of a disco jive but not much in the way of music for the performance.
Possibly due to the lack of music, the choreography choices didn’t have much. Limited unison, partner lifts only going to waist level and predominantly pair work over group formations. Later, one female pair attached themselves to each other with rope and carabiners and dragged each other back and forth across the floor for 10 minutes. The end pair work was doing hand-stands – one catching while the other did the hand stand. Admittedly this was in slow motion however it wasn’t anything to shout about. We also got the obligatory stand downstage centre and put the fingers up to the audience. And they of course added in a couple of run around in a circle.
There was also a section where one of the male dancers brought a pole on stage and he then proceeded to smack the suspended black bin bags with the stick until the scrunched up newspapers fell onto the stage. The choreographer then comes onto the stage and fake mops the floor with a Colombian flag. I guess, one man’s “brutalist” is another man’s boredom.
While the dancers are agile, athletic and flexible those skills alone are not sufficiently entertaining to warrant an 80 minute performance. Sadly, there really is nothing new or original to be found in Bogota.
Artistic Director and Choreographer: Andrew Pena
Lighting Design: Hugo Dalphond
Sound Composition: Debbie Doe and Rodolfo Rueda
Dramaturgy: Angelique Willkie
Technical Director: Vladimir Cara
Costumes: Jonathan Saucier and Polina Boltova
https://www.sadlerswells.com/whats-on/dance-umbrella-andrea-pena-artists-bogota/