Theatre: Stratospheric

Featuring two dances without music and a solo that explores a woman’s journey from serial monogamist to wife, Stratospheric is a hard sell to anyone outside of the dance cognoscenti. All three pieces are highly theoretical, exploring the outer limits of modern performance.Stammer's dDumy is as difficult as its title suggests.

A single woman contorts herself around, over, and against a chair. Colette Sadler’s choreography stretches the possibilities of movement, forcing dancer Nefeli Skarmea to assume almost impossible positions. The sparse staging and lack of music heightens the overwhelming sense of horror and isolation: dDumy is for the connoisseur with a strong stomach.Against this, both Natasha Gilmore's Forestillinger and Club Fisk's Madame Bazié come across as communicative and playful.

Gilmore adapts a variety of styles, from ballet to disco, in a free celebration of her life, while Club Fisk subvert Scandinavian seriousness to assert and mock the importance of conceptualism in performance.Between the three pieces, the boundaries of dance are challenged and extended, displaying Dance Base's commitment to the development of marginal artists: a rewarding hour spent at the cutting-edge.

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