Oona Doherty's new world premiere, Leather Jacket, at Bold Tendencies in London's Peckham car park turned theatre, sees eight dancers clad in leather jackets slap, beat and bounce in unison. Under bright fluorescent lights, they thud one foot to the ground repeatedly, building a determined rhythm that shifts from an electronic score to Cormac Begley's experimental Irish folk music. The jackets are soon shed, leaving the dancers in their underwear, as the movement evolves into Doherty's skewed Irish step dance.
A celebration of collective effort
The piece highlights the pleasure of sharing a rhythm and common dance, with exacting unison that remains human rather than robotic. Between sections, the exhausted dancers pant, sweat, swig water and laugh together, their presence grounding the performance. Doherty aims to show the pushing, perspiring and getting on with it – the dance is a means to an end, and the jackets make the work harder and sweatier.
Minimal movement, maximal impact
The movement itself is not hugely interesting, but there are wry theatrical flourishes: one dancer strips to his pants, dons sunglasses and smokes a cigarette. A slight sinister undercurrent emerges when the dancers slap the heavy jackets on the floor with thudding violence, hinting at a possible turn, but at a tight 45 minutes, the piece remains focused. It is another unpredictable step in Doherty's singular journey.
