Entity, Wayne McGregor and Random Dance, provided a hot rush to counter the city's chill on the opening week of the Belfast Festival. Together with the music of Joby Talbot, of the Divine Comedy fame, we left feeling like we'd had a hard night dancing ourselves, without the exhaustion, sweat and connections made with new folk on the dance floor. In fact the shrouded string quartet and electronic soundscape set a haunting tone for the otherworldly visuals which really did separate audience from performer. The dancers' extreme moves evoked voyeuristic feelings in me, their hot contortionist bodies pulling moves reminiscent of spasticity. It is the taboos around watching people who move outside of the norm that made it all the more compelling.
The awesome strength and endurance of the dancers allowed them to dance on the knuckles of their feet - that's a big ouch that I've experienced thanks to yoga teacher Idit's (from Samadhi yoga in Newtown) toe torture pose which she justifies as a tool for pain management.