Phoenix Dance Theatre review – triple bill swings from tortured to tender

Leeds Playhouse
Belonging: Loss. Legacy. Love brings together work by Phoenix’s new boss Marcus Jarrell Willis, Miguel Altunaga and Dane Hurst

Formed in 1981, Phoenix Dance Theatre have had more image changes than Madonna and now it’s time for a new iteration. Artistic director Marcus Jarrell Willis, who joined last year, is an American choreographer, a former dancer with the Alvin Ailey company and not well known in the UK, so this triple bill is the first chance for many to see his work.

The evening is cumbersomely titled Belonging: Loss. Legacy. Love, and Willis provides the final chapter with his piece Terms of Agreement. To the dreamy/poppy sounds of Labrinth and Rachel Chinouriri and spoken words by writer Tomos O’Sullivan, the eight-strong cast journeys somewhat aimlessly through different expressions of ardour and anguish. Love in this instance seems often sad and unfulfilling, but available in myriad permutations: a tortured throuple, a woman’s swooning solo, a standout scene between two men (Aaron Chaplin and Dylan Springer) taking turns to slide the other’s body from a table to the floor, ultra-slowly, that is strangely irresistible. But as a whole the work is lacking traction and effective dramaturgy.