Dance. Dance. Have Feelings., a fully improvised dance experience from House of Sand challenges audiences to consider the range of emotions that follow when you let your body lead.

The show begins as you enter the theatre; dancers are already on stage, “warming up” by following their physical impulses throughout the space. As an audience member, I’m already engaged, waiting to see when the dancers choose to begin the show. It’s clear the choice is in their hands (and feet, and torsos, and so on); the audience quiets, but the dancers continue on their own orbital planes.

The rest of the show builds slowly. You can see the dancers negotiating each movement, positioning themselves just barely within each other’s peripheral vision as they mould themselves into new shapes with each silent beat. They use their entire bodies, including vocal chords. They laugh, they cry, they laugh-cry, sometimes a moment too long.

As the scenes progress, the politeness is shrugged off and the company engages in pairs and groups, often colliding with each other. Sometimes this is effective, but after the third strained back bend I become a little worried for their safety.

There are moments where unexpected connection leaks through the troupe’s otherwise stoic expressions: Luke Romero and Kia Jewell smiling, wondering how to break free from their entangled legs and Tessa Redman flowing and weaving between dance partners with wild abandon come to mind.

Halfway through the show, the rest of the troupe rises from the audience, arms outstretched, as the dancers on stage continue to flail, unbothered. I am not a fan of the planted audience member, and their sudden appearance adds little to the show in that moment.

And then…they start to take off their clothes? I am about to write off the entire performance as an exercise in self-indulgence when a folk song begins. The clear and simple vocals focus the group. Ella Williams begins the most beautiful piece of dance of the evening- her movements are both fluid and restrained, detailed and expansive. Jag Popham also commands the stage with a clean, balanced expression. They both expertly combine musicality with strong technique. This is the dance experience I was hoping for.

The song swells to a fever pitch and then quiets, and the rest of the company joins the group once again, forming a line at the back of the stage. “No Scrubs” by TLC plays; this is the moment I realise the music is also improvised. The audience erupts in laughter and begins singing along. I wish that the dancers would join us, but their reticence reminds us once again who is actually in control.

The show closes with Toni Braxton’s “Unbreak My Heart”, and the troupe melts into a scene  that can be best described as Last Call at the Closing Night Cast Party. They are a pulsing ball of energy on its last spark, riding on adrenaline. Some of the cluster are wildly undulating, all are sweating, one is standing alone in the corner. It’s a beautiful mess and, at the end of it all, they are together, chests rising and falling as one, spent and in the fog of reverie that follows creation.

Dance. Dance. Have Feelings. leaves me with many; I am at once amused, uncomfortable, frustrated, and delighted. That one performance can elicit this range of emotions is a mark of success for House of Sand and their troupe of artists.

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