Smiley face.
A dance performance about social networking sounds awful in theory but LOL is a hugely enjoyable and thoughtful piece of work that needs to be seen to be understood.
The nature of online social networking is explored with poignancy, nuance and humour through dance, spoken narrative, multi-media imaging and a mass of tangles wires as the only prop. The six dancers – three female and three male – walk nonchalantly on stage wearing causal clothing, in fact not looking much like dancers at all. The movement between them is frenetic and they intertwine with one another, at times slotting together like a living jigsaw puzzle, and at others, moving entirely independently.
Dance is fused with speech which can be humorously robotic and is presented in a variety of forms including text-speak, emails, facebook wall-posing and instant messaging. The style of dance is distinctive and, at times, violent. Arms are wrapped around necks and bodies are jerked upright, pulled across the floor and folded over one another. When we hear the familiar log off ‘bing bong’ sound, our performers collapse, lifeless, onto the floor. This device serves as a slick way of moving from scene to scene.
Humour is an integral aspect of the performance. One particular routine begins with the sound of typing as two dancers move both together and apart with each staccato note. The two chat, flirt and argue through their movement with the varying rhythm of the intensifying typing. Despite their seemingly odd and jarring movements, there is a strong sense of cohesive narrative between their ‘conversation.’ Very clever and amusing to watch.
The notion of falling in love with someone we’ve never actually met is also explored as the dancers pair up and act out their first real meeting after chatting online. The results range from successful to comically uncomfortable and succeed in provoking thought about our willingness to give away so much of ourselves to someone we don’t really know.
LOL is all at once funny, poignant, tragic, uncomfortable and hopeful. It encourages us to consider how our use of technology is affecting the way in we interact with one other; despite our gratuitous communication, we still struggle to really communicate.
4 stars
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