REVIEW: RESOLUTION triple bill at The Place 5 Feb 2026
‘a platform where contrasting aesthetics can sit side by side’ ★★★★
Artists:
Jie Gao: Echo of Me
Manacan: Rooted
Shea Sullivan: Emanations of Disfigurement
Resolution, The Place’s annual platform for emerging choreographers, continues to present a wide spectrum of aesthetic voices. The 5 February triple bill moved from theatrical repetition to rhythmic physicality and finally into a darker, horror-inflected terrain.
Jie Gao’s Echo of Me opened with an image of disarming simplicity: a dancer and a red balloon. What first appeared playful gradually took on a more unsettling tone, as repetition accumulated and the stage filled with patterned movement. A striking moment came when the ensemble lined up diagonally behind the dancer with the balloon, the bold colour contrast shifting the atmosphere from comic to faintly totalitarian. When the balloon was finally popped, the dancers dispersed, and the piece ended with a man bringing his swinging arm to a halt—a small but potent gesture of agency. The structure was clear and engaging, though the comic sections might have been more sharply shaped to support the final image.
MANACAN’s Rooted followed with assured physical precision and rhythmic control. The duet built through tightly co-ordinated exchanges, the dancers shifting positions and watching one another with an almost ritual attention. Their grounded movement, supported by effective lighting, created a series of vivid stage images, but most memorable was the quiet moment of mutual gaze after a blackout, the stillness anchoring the piece’s more explosive physical passages.
Shea Sullivan’s Emanations of Disfigurement closed the programme in harsher territory. Screeching soundscapes and stark lighting created a deliberately uncomfortable environment. The red and green lighting, echoed in the costumes, suggested a broken traffic signal and a world out of balance. The movement was powerful and spatially ambitious, though a clearer stylistic and structural progression might have sharpened the work’s emotional impact.
As a whole, the evening reflected Resolution’s core strength: a platform where contrasting aesthetics can sit side by side, revealing the breadth of emerging choreographic voices.
RESOLUTION 2026 Festival of new choreography
The Place, London
BOX OFFICE https://theplace.org.uk/resolution-2026/
