Skip to content
Lucy Writers Platform

Lucy Writers Platform

  • Home
  • About us
    • About LWP
    • Editors
    • Writers
    • About Lucy Cavendish
    • Constitution
  • My Cambridge
    • Lucy Interviews
    • Lucy Features
    • Postgraduate Corner
      • My Research Articles
  • Write for us
    • Submissions and Contact
    • Special editions
    • Directory
  • Writing
    • Arts
      • Art and design
      • Books
      • Dance
      • Fashion
      • Film and Media
      • Music
      • Theatre
    • Creative Writing
      • Fiction
      • Flash Fiction
      • Poetry
      • Resources
    • Environment
    • General
    • Health and Wellbeing
      • Lucy Features
      • Short read
    • Interviews
    • Opinion
    • Politics
      • Features
      • My Feminisms
    • STEM

Review of Didy Veldman’s Umanoove in The Knot at the Mumford Theatre, Cambridge

15th December 201824th December 2018  Marion Beauchamp-Levet

Arts contributor Marion Beauchamp-Levet is enchanted by The Knot, the latest production from Didy Veldman’s company Umanoove.

On Thursday 8 November 2018, at 7:30 p.m., the Mumford Theatre in Cambridge temporarily metamorphosed into an enchanting place, gathering about sixty guests to celebrate the wedding of Didy Veldman’s dance company, Umanoove, and their new show, The Knot. All were mesmerised by the seven performers’ grace and lightness. Simply put, magic overwhelmed the audience, the stage, the world, for about an hour and goodness, how lovely it all was!

Of course, it’s not an easy task to add magic to a wedding. Word has it that every wedding is magical (or at least supposed to be so), that such a ceremony is necessarily a little escape from the gloominess of one’s life. After all, the celebration of love is usually, literally, an enchanting feast for the senses! Yet, Veldman out did herself in creating a dance-theatre performance that transported her audience into a world of beauty and harmony. The very first scene set the tone: seven dancers (three women and four men) slowly dressed for the occasion and showed how everyday gestures could be filled with grace and simple beauty. For simplicity is not usually celebrated, especially when it comes to the trappings of weddings; but in The Knot simple gestures, movements and visuals were highly effective and deserve to be praised. Nothing was excessive, far-fetched or too little. Veldman and her dancers hit exactly right note.

Didy Veldman’s Umanoove in The Knot, featuring dancer Sara Harton. Photo by Chris Nash, courtesy of Simon Harper PR.

The decor also mirrored this effective simplicity of movement. Minimalist in its use of white chairs and fairy lights, Veldman’s efficacious set allowed us to fully appreciate the choreography. Similarly, the uncomplicated costumes highlighted the graceful movements of the dancers. Everything contributed to the realness of the wedding; that is, by keeping the set simple, the audience became immersed in the developing action of the piece and were pulled into the twists and turns of the wedding ritual.

Didy Veldman’s Umanoove in The Knot, featuring dancer Oliver Chapman. Photo by Chris Nash, courtesy of Simon Harper PR.

Magical as it was, the performance did not fall into the conventional representation of weddings. Couples formed and came apart, playing with ideas on gender and social expectations to often comic effect. And what may at first start as attraction between a couple could soon turn to doubt; the rigours of ritual were often followed by brave bursts of spontaneity. Getting married has rarely been portrayed with such variety. Delicate touches of humour brought relief to moments of tension, which deepened the plot.

Didy Veldman’s Umanoove in The Knot, featuring dancer Sara Harton and Dane Hurst. Photo by Chris Nash, courtesy of Simon Harper PR.

In the end, it was impossible not to have a happy ending. What is always striking in contemporary dance is a dancer’s ability to communicate without language. In The Knot, emotions were so easily conveyed by and between the dancers, thus implicating the audience in the overall emotion of the piece. The company even managed to physically involve the audience by inviting us to join them onstage and demonstrate our own talent for dancing, rejoicing with them in the celebration. The fourth wall was virtually absent, but in no way was this embarrassing. On the contrary, and again thanks to an incredibly well-executed, simple language of movement, this big day was pulled off with ease, finesse and, most importantly, fun!

The wedding we attended at the Mumford Theatre was nothing but joy and enchantment. On leaving, I felt my spirit lifted by Veldman’s and Umanoove’s celebration of love. It’s always a shame when magic ends, but then again this is what makes it so special.

Didy Veldman’s and Umanoove’s The Knot was performed at the Mumford Theatre, Cambridge, on the 8th November 2018. For more information on Veldman and Umanoove, click here.

Posted in Arts, DanceTagged: Contemporary dance, Didy Veldman, Gender, love, Marriage, Mumford Theatre, relationships, The Knot, Umanoove

Post navigation

Review of The Djinns of Eidgah at the Corpus Playroom, Cambridge
Julie Rose Bower’s Foley Explosion at the Hackney Showrooms
  • Interview with Buki Papillon: ‘Know the rules, so that you can break them’
    By Emma Hanson
  • Poetics of Work by Noémi Lefebvre: an exciting, provocative piece of art
    By Elodie Rose Barnes
  • ‘Love from Polly’ by Polly Constance
    By Polly Constance
  • About us
  • Writers
  • About Lucy Cavendish
  • Write for us
  • Submissions and Contact
  • Special editions
This website uses cookies to help us understand how it is being used, allowing us discover how it might be improved.
Cookie SettingsAccept Cookies
Manage Cookies

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Analytics

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

SAVE & ACCEPT
Top