A dazzling white floor space sets off Nigerian/Finnish Ima Iduozee’s black skin and his grey and black outfit perfectly in This Is The Title, a production in association with From Start to Finnish. Lovers of break-dancing and dancers interested in release techniques and somatic practices will enjoy this show but for the general public there is not much more.
A hugely talented dancer in search of a choreographer.
It has to be admitted that Iduozee is beautiful. His taut muscle, flexible body and controlled movements are superb. Crouching off stage, but in view, he throws himself onto the white space as a dramatic entrance. Slides, break dancing, body flips are all expertly performed. There are even moments of stillness where his expressive face and smile charm the audience. And yet, should there not be more to producing a show than what is essentially a fly-on-the-wall's view of a practice workshop? One can’t help wondering if the title This Is The Title, far from being a cool nod to post-modernism, is the result of not knowing what the show is about.
Iduozee’s PR has produced a wonderful description of the content of Iduozee’s work: “Notions of identity, representation, memory and the edges of the human experience”. What a pity that none of this is evident in this show. It’s an early work of 2012, but Iduozee has since garnered praise for later works in 2017 and 2018. It would be interesting to see if these later productions have more content, for Ima Iduozee is a hugely talented dancer in search of a choreographer.
