Elisabeth Flett
Dancer, singer and performance artist Mele Broomes takes the audience on a journey of self acceptance and reclamation of the body in this ensemble performance inspired by the healing properties of castor oil, accompanied by soundscapes created by onstage musician Simone Seales (cello, synths).
The audience enters Dance Base 1 to the sound of a looping cello melody, the stage washed in ethereal blue-toned lighting. Two figures shift in dreamy fragments of movement to the side of the stage; two sit in gentle connection; another dancer is surrounded by dark pink fabric flowers and a final performer is sat next to musician Simone Seales as they skilfully lead us through this world of echoing synth fuzz and soaring strings.
By the time Broomes slowly walks her way to the back of the stage and lays down her pink woven flowers we are fully immersed inside this moonlight worldscape, settling into a story full of patient care and breathtaking stillness. The pre-recorded track fades into live cello and vocals. Melancholic gentleness, sparse drones and haunting melodies emerge, dancers connecting and separating as ringing harmonies and haunting vocals fill the space. Through warm temperatures is a show about the properties of castor oil, and as the refrain of “Seed. Bean. Oil. Oil. Seed. Bean.” grounds us in this world of deep blues and orange-tinged reds we feel as though we have sunk into an entire bath of the liquid itself.
BSL is seamlessly integrated into this work, translations part of the choreography itself rather than an afterthought sat to the side of the stage, and the fluid grace of the signing and the way Seales’s live music intertwines with the actions adds a great deal to the overall feel of the performance.
Through warm temperatures is grounded around a few core patterns of movement, these patterns replayed over and over with a swaying, halting, juddering insistence as the dancers commit to their parts with a trance-like focus. Broomes describes these actions as APPLY/TRUST/SURRENDER, and it is this honouring of castor oil’s healing qualities which runs throughout the piece. As meditative as this opening section appears, Through warm temperatures does not remain mellow throughout. Rhythmically repetitive cello lines usher in a red-toned world of breathy, sharp-edged glee, Broomes’s wild laughs laced with an unnerving fervour as hysteria spreads across the stage.
As this piece comes to its conclusion, however, it is with a return back to that space of pulsing synths and echoing beauty, stillness utilised with just as much thought and deliberate choice as the choreography itself. In fact, by the end of the piece – Broomes accepting the peace and acceptance offered to her by her co-performer’s hands, then joining them in lying down a perfect, never-ending pause- the stillness is the choreography. The use of visual imagery in through warm temperatures is phenomenal, as is the combining of vocals, live strings, synth soundscapes, BSL signing and choreographed movement. Broomes’s voice rises above this strange, mesmeric world of her own creation, her sung fragments of melody and words rich with a deep, powerful strength.
“I searched inside myself, and asked for forgiveness.”
In her own search for meaning, Broomes has created a breath-taking world for us all to experience, and enjoy. If you only see one dance performance at the Fringe this year, let it be this one.
You can catch through warm temperatures at DBL, Assembly @ Dance Base from now until 24th Auguat at 13:15 (60 mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Image credit: Ruby Pluhar
Lamesha Ruddock
Jake Mace
