Photo credit John Collingswood
On the 22nd of February I was fortunate enough to attend Deborah Light’s production of Hide at the renowned Chapter Arts Centre based in Canton, Cardiff
Upon my reflection of Hide I have come to the realisation that Deborah Light has managed to create such a beautiful and effective performance piece that has left a lasting impression on every viewer. By using only a few lights, minimal props and clothing, Hide forces the audience to pay more attention to the exceptionally choreographed tango, the breath taking solo pieces and experience the passionate message delivered by each dancer.
Hide manages to cleverly play with the audience emotions, seeing a naked Jo Fong laughing one moment and bordering the tears next instantly creates a confliction of feelings within us, I instantly felt a sense of distress, as though I should be rushing forward to offer my jacket to help hide her modesty. Watching the high intensity, fast paced and articulate sequence delivered by Rosalind Haf Brooks left me wonderfully exhausted and in awe of how amazing the human body can be moulded into creating such a stunning art form. And finally Eddie Ladd’s simple choice of words managed to force the viewer to take a look and question themselves and society’s judgement on others.
It constantly left me waiting with baited breath, unaware and excited by what was to follow. I found the piece a journey of self-discovery having never experienced this type of performance art before. It opened my eyes to how movement, sound and spoken text could mould together to create such a valuable eye opening experience that I would definitely want to encounter again. Deborah Light has created something raw, stripped back and bare and in that sense we cannot hide from the moral story that is being played out in front of us. Do we force people to hide? Or are we hiding ourselves?
Sarah Finch