Richard Chappell’s Hot House uses every shade of red to convey the idea of heat. At first the empty stage is dark. An illuminated exit sign upstage right, and a pinpoint of light that might be coming through a keyhole, suggest a commercial or civic setting. Then light slowly suffuses the space, as if clearing away mist, to reveal solo violinist Enyuan Khong and a single dancer. We might be in a night club, or an abandoned warehouse – we just don’t know – as dancers gradually join in, until there are five of them that seem simultaneously to represent the flames of a fire and the participants in a rave. All dressed in red costumes that are individually styled, they dance silently with fluidity and control, accompanied by Khong’s live performance, and backed by recorded ‘electronica’. Their movement is strong and gracefully gymnastic as they circle the stage and each other, turning and spinning like planets. The choreography is relatively ungendered, but the women also arch and stretch in supple backbends and, ‘walk-overs’, and one raises her leg above her head in a backward arc, like a figure skater.

The central section of Hot House feels like a party, the five dancers working in vigorous rhythmic unison, as if warmed by overhead orange discs or the radiant heat from electric bar heaters that seem to glow high above them. It was like watching the embers of a fire, where each coal is both a separate entity and part of the whole. At the end, the work returned to its beginning, with a single dancer and finally the violinist holding the stage until the blackout.

The dancers often seemed to sense each other’s presence without engaging eyes or emotion. They lifted, held and turned one another in perfect but detached synchrony, like people on a busy street expertly negotiating their physical surroundings while using a mobile phone to talk to someone possibly hundreds of miles away. The printed programme sheet (and it was great that this was available!) referred to the cost-of-living crisis, which has made warmth a commodity, political protest and celebration of community, but to me the dance spoke above all of the isolation of the individual in the crowd.

Maggie Watson

9th March 2024

You can find out more about Richard Chappell Dance here