In ‘Avatara’ the performers merge seamlessly with their multi-headed avatars ★★★☆☆

At the end of August, Mark Zuckerberg’s digital counterpart still elicited laughter. If this blank little man was the bumbling result of multi-billion dollar investments in the 3D world of the metaversethat didn’t bode well for the graphic quality of Zuckerberg’s dream for the future.

Then the alter egos appear in the performance Avatara much more exciting. No wonder: for this five-piece dance with multi-headed avatars, versatile hip-hop choreographer Shailesh Bahoran teams up with iconic puppet master Duda Paiva. The latter invariably knows how to bring to life wonderful creations of foam rubber and marbles, as elastic as they are expressive. With the right control, his dolls (sometimes only extremely enlarged limbs) become ingenious extensions of muscular dance bodies.

The five performers of the Illusionary Rockaz Company merge seamlessly with their avatars. Especially the opening solo by Simon Bus makes a big impression. Who’s cutting who here: Bus’s alter ego, which resembles his sinewy body perfectly in terms of muscle fibers? Or does the doll, knocked loose from marbled blocks, hold the power?

This duality is present in almost all solos, performed against a back wall of black curtains and three metal plates. Outwardly, the avatars give shape to inner conflicts: from dream to fear, from discord (two weeping counterparts) to lust for power (one mowing down giant hand) and from six-armed gods to multi-headed monsters. Bahoran’s dance language fits organically, with robotic shocks and staccato pulses popping & lockinga wave of meandering arms from the wavingtechnique, as well as spiral shapes from Indian dance, in which limbs twist away with open palms.

The undulating soundscape also covers extremes: from terrifying shortness of breath to harmonic singing bowls. Too bad that Avatara a succession of separate scenes remains. Dancers disappear (too) long from the picture, behind the stage curtains. This always breaks through the illusion that is so artfully built up with light, sound, movement and counterparts.