Dance review: Suite-Hope, Dance Base (Venue 22), Edinburgh

THIS passionate duet by Italy’s Compagnia Chiara Frigo begins and ends with the performers off-stage. But we are not alone.

Suite-Hope

Dance Base (venue 22)

Star rating: * * *

Instead, we share the space with a series of cut-out paper figures, their ability to stand and balance together working as a metaphor for our own challenges in life.

Dancers Chiara Frigo and Maru Rivas Medina begin by answering a number of thought-provoking questions – not with their mouths, but with their bodies. “The ones who have fought for an idea, step forward,” says the voiceover, “The ones who left home thinking they would never go back, lie down,” – and Frigo and Medina comply.

It is with such questions ringing in our ears that we watch the duo plunge into frenetic movement with an urgency that is both compelling and distressing. Likewise, the soundtrack takes no prisoners, and it is soothing when the dancers split into solo spotlights for more calm, studied movement.

An amusing segment follows, during which the performers wear multilayered T-shirts adorned with famous faces, such as Chairman Mao, Martin Luther King and Marilyn Monroe. It seems one woman has the good guys, one the bad – but that’s for us to decide.

• Until 12 August. Today 7pm.