Irish Times writers review Forsythe: Three Atmospheric Studies Dublin Dance Festivalat the Abbey Theatre, Dublin and Homburger, Guy, Adamsat St Audoen's Church, Dublin.

Forsythe: Three Atmospheric Studies Dublin Dance Festival, Abbey Theatre, Dublin

MICHAEL SEAVER

A BRAIN that single-handedly deconstructed classical ballet vocabulary could easily construct a cogent outline of the injustice of the war in Iraq.

But, in his triptych of dances, Three Atmospheric Studies, choreographer William Forsythe has chosen to focus on personal tragedy rather the meta-political theory, and makes his point not by revealing the truth, but by revealing the lies. And, however the viewer might rationalise truth as the greatest victim in this conflict, its emotions are dragged back to the individual seeking truth: a woman whose son has been arrested and who ends up inert and submissive in the face of personal devastation.

In the first study, a split-second anacrusis of what appears to be a normal streetscape of walkers is shattered and transformed into a chaotic stop-start series of grappling and aggressive duets, trios and quartets that spin off into other clusters of movement. These isobars of rippling energy are punctuated by sotto voce breaths and exhalations that are on the edge of forming words.

But it is words that are untrustworthy in the second study as the mother talks with an increasingly unhelpful translator who changes the essence of her story and soon becomes an inquisitor. A slimy mouthed American official offers self-serving reasons for the death of the boy in the third study, to a backdrop of the sternum-shuddering booms and thuds of battle.

"Your point of view isn't interesting to me," says the official, a summation of the public apathy and official arrogance that has prompted Forsythe's angry work. It's a forensic lecture - every syllable and movement follows a perfect logic - and it is outlined in incredible physical detail by the dancers.

But, however impressive the conceptual achievement, Three Atmospheric Studies still connects at a deeply human and personal level. Rejected by some because of its content, it drew admiring applause from the first night audience at the Abbey. Maybe this empathy was also personal: one dancer's descriptions of a street strewn with body parts described the scene around the corner from the theatre on Talbot Street 34 years ago.

St Audoen's Church, Dublin

ANDREW JOHNSTONE

THE BAROQUE-contemporary crossover component in this year's annual Dublin Handel Festival was provided by string duo Maya Homburger and Barry Guy in collaboration with harpsichordist David Adams.

Homburger plays a gut-strung Italian violin that dates from around the time Handel was in Ireland. Guy accompanied her on his five-string bass in one of the Mystery Sonatas composed in the 1670s by Heinrich Biber, and in his own Celebration, originally written for solo violin.His improvised accompaniment to Celebration contributed much colour and counter-argument to an already sparkling and self-contained violin part.

The programme's other new music offering, by Irish composer Benjamin Dwyer, brought all three players together. Passacaille was heard at last year's Handel Festival, and Dwyer has now appended a prelude. The two-movement work is the alter-ego of Dwyer's Piano Trio II, but the exchange of piano and cello for harpsichord and double bass gives it a radically different feel. What's lost in harmonic cogency is gained in quirky colouring.

Homburger and Adams made up the rest of the programme with Bach's G-major sonata BWV 1019 and Handel's two A-major sonatas for violin and continuo. Though both played the Bach with elan, its prescriptive notation and fastidiously crafted textures offered fewer opportunities for the spontaneity and dash with which they dispatched the Handel. The slow introductions got the adagio treatment par excellence, the repeats were graced with tasteful decorations and divisions, and the music took its every step with a spring. It was Handel's festival, and it was Handel's concert.