Dance review: Balletlorent, La Nuit Intime - Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline

LIV Lorent has choreographed some of the most beautiful and emotive dance works seen in Scotland in recent years. Whether it’s with her own company (Designer Body, Blood, Sweat & Tears) or Scottish Dance Theatre (Luxuria, Tenderhook), she knows how to fuse movement, music and lighting into one glorious whole.

But while there are echoes of those past glories in la nuit intime, they are few and far between. Performed in the attached bar/restaurant of each theatre it plays at, the show is billed as “a series of intimate exchanges”. Using six separate spaces dotted around the room, ten dancers deliver solos, duets and the occasional group piece.

Copious costumes are donned and strewn, often before our eyes, while the eclectic soundtrack steers the atmosphere from contemplative to frenetic and back again several times over.

During two and a half hours, the action never stops. Sometimes there’s little more than a hip-shaking solo seeking our attention, other times four things happen at once and it’s up to us to choose which dancer to admire.

Lorent has succeeded in creating a relaxed atmosphere, where audience members can stroll to the bar, move around or talk quietly during the performance. She’s also filled the work with a wide range of styles, from ballet, contemporary and hip hop, to aerial, flamenco and pure dance theatre.

What Lorent hasn’t done, however, is touch us with the depth of emotion evident in previous works, making la nuit intime feel over-long and at times underwhelming.

Rating: ***