The Space Upstairs at the Project was full on Friday last for the Dublin premiere of halfangel's The Secret Project, more than a year after its first performance at the Banff Centre in Canada and the Institute of Choreography and Dance at Cork's Firkin Crane. Many present clearly enjoyed the performance, but it was not my glass of Murphy's. The idea of dancers' movements triggering sound, lighting or video is not new. Icontact Dance Company, working with composer Roger Doyle, was experimenting along the same lines as long ago as 1990 and, indeed, one of the three dancers in The Secret Project, Cindy Cummings, worked with that company. I did not feel then, nor do I now, that how effects are achieved is as important as what those effects are, and, in this case, they failed to provide an exciting or interesting experience for me. Movements seemed designed to trigger technological responses rather than to illuminate the text, spoken in English, Irish and French, or simply to give pleasure by their beauty. Moreover, the curved arms of the radio microphones broke the natural line when attractive body movements occurred, such as in Jools Gilson-Ellis's solos.
My favourite moment was near the beginning when Gilson-Ellis, Cummings and Mary Nunan slowly crossed the stage as they defined secrecy, dictionary definitions of which were later reflected on screen. I also liked the music by the researcher and digital artist, Richard Povall.
