The round stage is raised and tilted and, from a black hole at the centre like the mouth of a volcano, a dozen legs fan out, swaying like the stamens of some exotic flower. Very slowly emerging from the earth come a mass of squirming creatures, naked newborns writhing orgiastically into life.
Yama looks like nothing else I’ve seen. Created by Belgian-French choreographer Damien Jalet for Scottish Dance Theatre, it’s an intensely atmospheric work that speaks to senses and instincts, and is built on rhythm, texture and a distinct visual identity.
Jalet is best known in Britain as a collaborator with choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (on the award-winning Babel), but his biog includes work with Marina Abramovic and dancing in the Louvre, and he has a high-profile project this autumn with designer Hussein Chalayan.
The eight bodies on stage have voluminous, matted blonde locks falling over their anonymous faces. They manoeuvre into fantastically eccentric fringed playsuits (by Brussels fashion designer Jean-Paul Lespagnard) and begin swelling and falling in ritualistic patterns, morphing from organic movement into tight rhythmic formations. It’s like Busby Berkeley gone feral.
Jalet was inspired by Japanese mountain mythology and animist rituals and you can get a sense of the Japanese butoh aesthetic here. But Yama is also a little bit fetish, a little bit fashion, a little bit bonkers and yet completely original; a striking sensual world that will suck you in.
Until Saturday (0131 226 0000, edfringe.com)
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