Roam

Prepare to be dragged deep into the abyss by Tom Dale’s “Roam”. With fog engulfing the stage, the audience and dancers embark on a moving hour-long journey exploring “life’s roaming pulse”.
A highly abstract piece, the dancing flits between high-paced animalism and ineffably precise technical movements, whilst continually retaining this “pulse” that Dale wishes to portray, through the repetition of the same motifs.
The dancers are consumed by an invisible force, dragged and strewn across the stage, with shapes inconceivable to the mere audience. The tempo starts slow, gradually building up with a variety of solo and group performances, some of which are genuinely spine-tingling, especially when accentuated by the superb soundtrack. Produced by bass music stalwart Shackleton and live Drum and Bass duo Sion, the feathery percussion and rolling sub-bass compliment perfectly the mood and expression of the dancing, heightened with some spoken word, from the poetry of Rick Holland. The finale crescendos into jittering jungle breaks and garage grooves, and by the time the performers leave the stage the crowd are in raptures, craving more.
Dale claims that ROAM is “not meant to be read but experienced”, and there truly are very few experiences as rewarding as this show to be had at this year’s Fringe. Simply unmissable.

5/5

Yann Chalmers