Have you ever had one of those days when even the basics of getting dressed seem a struggle?

Arms go through the wrong sleeve and legs become a tangled mess of skin and fabric. Well, that’s the basic premised of Basic Dressing, the first part of a dance and physical theatre double bill from Experiment 86. Fortunately for all concerned, performer Thomas Millington’s boxer shorts are the only item of clothing that don’t end up back-to-front, upside-down, and on the floor.

This short extract started life as a college piece and could easily sustain a show in its own right. With echoes of the slapstick humour of Laurel and Hardy, this beautifully-observed comic sketch has much potential.

In their second offering, This Is Our Universe, Millington and Michael Moussoulides move away from pure physical theatre into a more surreal offering with the premise of two strangers locked into a room with no exit.

Like its predecessor, this is a sharply-drawn, well-performed sequence but, where as Basic Dressing could easily be expanded, this piece would benefit from some editing.

For the surreal world of Experiment 86 to, what appears to be a more traditional contemporary dance experience with Isobel Cohen, artistic director of Helix Dance. Stark lighting and dramatic dance moves kick it off and the audience starts to imagine the inner torment the dancer is portraying. But as quickly as the dance starts, it stops and we are treated to a monologue that delves deeply into the dancer’s psyche with no small amount of humour. We learn the inner secrets of those ballet poses and how the anguish in dance is actually a response to a boyfriend’s thoughtless present of a PVc basque.

Contemporary dance often has a reputation of taking itself far too seriously but in this wry and well-conceived piece, Cohen shows that behind even the most serious of perfomers is a story just waiting to burst out.

A splendid Pulse entry that could easily develop into a full-length – and memorable - ode to dance.

PAUL PEARCE-COUCH
June 2009

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