"Oh, great time to fart, Rob."
Dance Umbrella's latest imaginative outdoor presentation is an experience unlike any other - something you must see to believe.
Beginning at the spike near London Bridge, crowd controllers inform all to slowly walk with the performers or you might just miss the hidden contortionists. Indeed they were right. As we walk down the stairs behind Evan's Cycles, we nearly stumble upon the rows of perforers wearing American Apparel-esque hoodies and sweats. No need to stop and stare as you soon discover other individual performers tucked away on lamp posts and front gardens. That's only the start ...
We are ushered down Tooley Street where we find stacks of performers wedged in a standing fixture at Hay's Galleria. Other passers-by soon join, and the dense crowd makes its way down Bermondsey Street to a Zip Car lot holding a line of dancers hugging a pipe. Another random performer is spotted simply hanging from a brick wall morphing into the hanging basket. Say what? At least that is what the man was thinking in the flat just above.
Further down Bermondsey Street we go and the crowd thickens. A few more stunts and then...two tiny rounded bums protruding from a house's front wood paneling! Further along Cherry Tree Terrace we continue to see dancers tucked in various gardens, and at the end of the road we are stopped at an abandoned lot with an overhead rail track. There lies a beautiful pyramid of legs and arms. Striking and oh so very London.
We continue back to Tooley Street where we find a free-hanging woman in an incredibly small space between two rails. 'How can that be?,' everyone whispers. The show finishes at the Scoop with one last final exhibit of far-out choreography.
Too cool for words. How often do you get to see inverted hanging from pipes, side bends on bicycle racks and yoga acrobatics on street corners?
A walking tour not to be missed!
Dance Umbrella runs Saturday 17 October 1pm and 4.30pm, and Sunday 18 October, 1pm.
By Tiffany Pritchard
