Clélia Vuille’s Saudade formed part of a triple bill performed at the Resolution17 Festival at London’s innovative dance development space The Place, on Saturday 21 January 2017. This fluid performance of experimental dance revealed an accessible fusion of movement and emotion, crossing paths of shared physical contact, fading and blurring the moment, and teasing our memories. Vuille’s dance theatre presented the audience with a physical stream of melancholic nostalgia, where larger-than life shadows evoked both past, present and unrequited relationships. Empty balloons often led the choreography, pulling the performers with equally empty promises: a haunting trace to lost paths of remembrance. Two soulless, vacant costumes suggested further embodiment of spaces bereft of occupancy, suspended above the dancers and casting silent comment over the drama played out below. Conveying ghost-like foreboding, or suggesting imaginary events conjured by the dramatic relationships occurring on stage, these motionless counterparts hovered menacingly as a constant reminder that presence is often more powerful through absence. Vuille began her professional dance studies in Lausanne, moving to London’s Trinity Laban where her gift for mixing Ballet, Contemporary and Modern styles alongside Pilates and Jazz secured her a first class BA Honours in 2013.

Text by Veronica Bailey, trustee

Photo © Howard White

Video©The Place