Ternion is a youthful,  optimistic, littler [than Dark Tourists] evening of dance that shows the performers’ lyrical style of movement and sense of line.  The choreography shapes itself around those dance qualities rather than make demands or statements in its own right.  One short film has ever so clever mirror and camera tricks that make the audience feel they are inside a prismatic kaleidoscope.

The 50 minute programme reflects youthful ideas in an unpretentious and pleasant way. 

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Ternion (three things together) is the apt title for an evening of well realised dance, with slick production values and committed performances.

Elizabeth Kinley’s work There One Minute leads the programme with a clear conceptual base and good use of a repetitive structure to portray the uncertainty of the future and the certainty of fleeting mortality. A dancer. Melanie Clark enters; soft and fluid body.  I liked the way she came directly to us as if to say – please come into this dance. This kind of invitation is often lacking in contemporary dance. 

Innocence, light and joy of relationship are captured in harmonius dance when Kinley enters. These two dancers really connect with each other and have a great rapport onstage and Robert Larsen conjures the light on their skin just right. 

In the second scene the partnership is broken as the inertia of death propels the fervour of grief.  Kinley moves beautifully in this section with sweeping arms and tender folds into the floor; her body portraying convincing sorrow. The electronic music (no music credits in the programme) tends to overpower the visuals and add an unnecessary emotive layer. Then a replay of this scene but with a different outcome nicely captures the key idea of the piece.  The work is clear and just the right length. 

Sarah Foster has contributed a medley of three short films. As a fledgling film maker – sending her efforts across the net from London – she has made an impressive start. 

Old standard Wasted Days and Wasted Nights is the audio track for the first short as Foster, in a nut shell is:  black and white, bored-typing, clumsily twitching, falling down, exiting, smoking, drinking tea … A quirky sketch.

The second film is more satisfying, bordering on brilliant, with two Fosters now. She uses a split screen technique to produce lovely dual movement sequences, forwards and backwards. This is intricate well explored movement, musically spot-on in a grimy Coro St back alley.  Foster as Siamese twins morphs her body in and out of itself to compelling folk music, then splits into four; chromosomal before the lens focuses on mutating, vulvic hands. This is kaleidoscopic invention and it is exhilarating to experience Foster experimenting with her new toy.

The Civilians is the last work and although overly long it again throws up some cunning moves and exploration of the medium to shine a disturbing light on life in Britain, subtly alluding to the recent murder of 14 year old Martin Dinnegan by another 15 year old.  Foster is an artist to watch as she develops her ideas and skills.

Dipole Moment is the title of the third work, choreographed by Melanie Clark. She has taken as her inspiration the Dipole (positive and negative reaction of molecules) moment in water and without spilling a drop to some extent she manages to portray these ideas.

The three dancers – Clark and Kinley now joined by Nicole Chadderton – dance with focus, integrity and great technique.  It has a solid choreographic structure and builds well to a conclusion. However the music again is dictating too strongly the activity onstage.

Clark, in a gorgeous solo, finds the liquidity of her 90% water body, and there are some pleasing explorations into the trio form and a great use of the space. The key ideas of positive and negative reaction are referred to but could be more fully developed. Clark is able to create logical phrases but the rhythms and choreographic language need variation. At one point the lights change to pick up the blues of the costumes in a luminous way; throughout the performance the lighting design is subtle and intelligent.

Elizabeth Kinley and Melanie Clark are starting to investigate the mechanics of a familiar vocabulary. They can go further to dismantle and throw out the tried and true momentum pathways whilst retaining some of the known framework. They could chop things up like a great Ornette Coleman song that never takes you where you expect to go; listen to this kind of music to find the skin and bones of their own movement.

These succulent and accomplished dancers and fledgling choreographers need to go into the unknown zone to find another kind of beauty.  The result could be stunning! 

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