Come, been and gone can officially be added to the list of things I don’t get. Michael Clark is seen as a visionary in the contemporary dance world, and this celebration of his work over the past 25 years has recieved rave reviews from some respectable critics. Some of the quotes have included “shockingly good,” “A thunderous electrifying evening of attention-seeking sound, stimulating visuals, and impressive fine-tuned focused dancers,” and “‘Come, been and gone’ blew our tiny minds“ . My take is that it’s a bloated, pretentious, wanky dance piece. I should also point out that I can only justify reviewing two thirds of the production as I left at the second interval.
Frankly, I was bored.
I think this comes down to the fact that modern dance and I seem to not get along. While some people see modern pieces of art, reflecting the harsh nature of existence in a postmodern, 21st century world, I see a lady in a mirror ball body stocking flailing around on stage. Sure, I can’t pigeonhole a very large, diverse area of dance, but it’s this arts for arts sake style of modern dance that I abhor. To me it lacks feeling and connection, and seems so hell bent on making a statement that they forget that they look like a pretentious bunch of twats leaping around the stage like idiots.
Sure, the dancers were clearly all at the top of their game. Hand selected as the best from Michael Clark’s company, they perform his work with the utmost precision. However, it’s not the dancers I had a problem with, it was the dance. Also, the sound designer deserved to be shot. In Swamp, the first section of the show, it sounded as if the composer/sound designer had just learnt how to use sequencing software and threw every effect at the track to make it sound like Aphex Twin, but failing. Terribly.The treatment given to The Velvet Underground was similarly shocking, with tracks pushed to the point of distortion with no other reason apart from the fact it’s ‘edgy’.
If you’re already a fan of Michael Clark’s work then you could possibly enjoy this. However, if you’re already a fan you’ve already seen it and stopped at the first paragraph. If you’re not then the show was beautifully summed up by my company for the night:
‘flicky leg, flicky leg. Chicken wing, chicken wing. Person dressed as a disco ball.’
Come, been and gone is playing at the Barbican until 12 June
