Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre – until 25th July 2026
Reviewed by Phil Brown
3***
In The Brain is a remarkably uncompromising, full on work of dance music and dance by Hofesh Shechter, superlatively performed by his Shechter II company of 8 absolutely peerless dancers – four men and four women.
Rarely have I seen such high energy fluency, grace and harmony sustained so well in a continuously fluctuating ensemble routine, let alone one that continues non-stop for an hour. It feels as close to perfect execution as you can get. So hats off to a truly phenomenal group of dancers – Matilde Agostinone, Teige Bisnought, Nagga Baldina, Federica Fantuzi, Woojin Kwon, Armand Lassus, Skiye Nataliah, and Ella Roberts. Whilst there are occasional, brief moments of individual prominence allowing for some improvisation, plus an amount of repetition, the task of memorising such a long routine, and the hours of rehearsal required to perfect it, is hard to contemplate. Moreover, the strength, athleticism and endurance required to perform what appears to be the equivalent of a military grade work-out is staggering. These dancers show exactly why they are the 8 selected from over 1200 international auditionees aged between 18 and 25 for the award-winning Shechter II company, the only paid professional development programme of its kind for emerging contemporary dancers in the UK.
However, as dazzling and breathtaking as the content was, for me it was too relentless, frantic in places and unstructured, yet repetitive, to really enjoy. For me, its entertainment value is limited, and some way short of the virtuosic brilliance of the performance.
Anyway, first things first. I have to confess to not being familiar with Hofesh Shechter’s work. Born in Israel, but relocated to London in 2002, he is a globally acclaimed choreographer, dancer and composer, awarded an OBE for services to dance in 2018. He is known for visceral, rhythm-driven, and emotionally intense works, as well as for composing his own cinematic musical scores. His high energy productions are said to take contemporary dance into the realms of rock concert intensity.
In The Brain was developed from a shorter original work called Cave produced by the Martha Graham Company and Studio Simkin premiered at City Center Dance Festival, New York City in April 2022, and which explored nightlife and human gathering through dance and its transcendental quality. In The Brain aims to build from that, by transforming the theatre into an immersive, high-voltage celebration of movement, music, and pure, unfiltered energy.
The event blurb describes In The Brain as “Part rave. Part ritual. In The Brain is an invitation to let go – to move, to surrender to the music, and to be swept away in rhythm”. In a manner that reflects the repetitive elements of the choreography, it goes on to describe it as “a space to break free. To lose yourself. To surrender to the rush of movement, the weight of bass, and the euphoria of bodies locked in Shechter’s signature groove”.
The dancers certainly unleash. I don’t think they succeed in shattering the barrier between stage and audience, to pull the audience into a “fevered, all-consuming experience that leaves you craving more”, but that’s an issue with the overall concept, not the brilliant performance.
So, apart from the context for its conception, there is no narrative to In The Brain – just music, lighting and dance, and to someone not from the clubbing generation, it’s certainly a whole different experience.
The QEH auditorium is already heavily primed with smoke on entry creating a semi-permanent haze throughout the performance. Tom Visser (lighting) keeps the stage shrouded in a minimalist murky, amber-and-smoky glow with occasional black-outs creating an atmosphere of intimacy, and positively enhancing the mercurial qualities of the choreography. It can also obscure detail on occasion and make things seem slightly out of focus. The music, co-composed by Shechter himself alongside tracks from German techno duo Âme, is an unrelenting engine of bass-heavy pulses, industrial and percussive textures and hypnotic rhythms. I think this is essentially trance music in all its forms and the exceptional marriage of dance and beats renders the whole experience powerfully trancelike. In this respect we haven’t moved too far away from small scale pre-literate societies.
From the opening moments, eight figures emerge from the darkness rippling through space like a single organism. They fragment into individuals and merge back into the tribal organism repeatedly as the music ebbs and flows in intensity. The fluid and frequent rapid changes in movement are reminiscent of the trance inducing wonder of avian murmurations. Frenzied passages of ecstatic release are interrupted by moments of startling tenderness. The dancers combine technical precision with physical abandon in awe-inspiring fashion. There is an opening night hunger about this performance.
The show got a very enthusiastic audience reception and the dance company more than earned it. However, despite fabulous choreography and the bravura performance by the magnificent 8, this is a show to be admired for virtuoso performance rather than enjoyed as compelling entertainment. I thought the whole point about raves was joining in, not watching others do it from a theatre seat. The intended shattering of the barrier between stage and audience didn’t happen for me or my plus one. We were not left wanting more, but as previously mentioned, neither of us are members of the clubbing or rave generation. With a duration of 1 hour, there is inevitably a degree of monotony and I did sense some audience restlessness creeping in around me after 45 minutes suggesting a shorter piece might be preferred.
Overall, the show may be too uncompromising for universal acceptance outside of clubbing/rave aficionados, but it was a distinct pleasure to see the coming generation of world class dance talent showcase both their heart and their art with such flair.