Dance review: Trisha Brown Dance Company, Glasgow Tramway

When your career spans five decades, you’re allowed to change your mind a few times.

One of the pivotal figures in American modern dance, Trisha Brown has been choreographing since the early 1960s, creating works that range from challenging to charming.

Along with a few others, Brown helped re-define what dance actually is, and the four works performed at Tramway truly captured the essence of this fascinating woman.

Created over a 21 year period, from 1990 to 2011, each piece revealed something different about Brown’s thought process. For MG: The Movie forced us to think again about movement – or the lack of it – in a performance space. One dancer ran almost constantly, in circles and figures of eight, while another stood entirely still for the duration. Both added just as much to the chorography.

If you couldn’t see me, a beautiful solo performed by Leah Morrison, took the bold step of never allowing the dancer to face the audience. Viewing only one side of the body, we began to appreciate the suppleness of the back, the way the body leans, how arms look from behind, and a whole lot more.

Local brass ensemble, The Horns of Plenty, provided the soundtrack for Foray Forêt, cleverly positioned in various locations outside the auditorium, offering the impression of a whole other life happening elsewhere.

While 2011’s, Les Yeux de l’âme, demonstrated a courtly grace that felt a million miles away from the early experimental days in New York, yet still retained that inimitable Brown stamp.

Rating: ****