DDF: Nubes (Clouds)

Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, Dublin

From the first flit on stage, in signature bowler hats and long coats, Aracaladanza, the Spanish children’s dance company, enchanted and seduced us into the vibrant surreal world of René Magritte. The dancers tested our imaginations, our faith in gravity, our sense of fun, as they made simple pictures turning everyday objects on their heads.

The child in us revelled in the glimpses of the incongruous or the unexpected; giant green apples falling from make-believe trees, six sets of fingers where two should be, or soft white cotton wool puff clouds transformed into gambolling sheep.

This ensemble of six expressive and athletic dancers brought a unique mix of playfulness and joyful energy, choreographic magic and visual wit to their performance. With simple genius, they began with a huge billowing plastic cloud swirling about the stage and then moved to creating myriad figures and shapes in shadow play. And so it went on, one sequence of vivid colour and illusion dissolving into another like rain clouds in the face of sudden sun.

Mesmerised, we watched as under the fine-tuned pacing of director Enrique Cabrera, these graceful dancers, quick-change artists and illusionists raced up and down ladders in bright blue tutus or flapped around the stage in a deliciously zany flipper dance. A synchronised routine with Fred Astaire-long frockcoats and ghostly globes instead of heads was perfectly executed.

In all, playful, poetic and heaps of fun.

Dublin Dance Festival continues until May 26th