IJAD - my thoughts on In-finite Space at The Vaults

On Thursday night I found myself walking round Waterloo station trying to find the mysterious Vaults and the Vault Festival. Eventually stumbling on a graffiti artist’s heaven I found the right place – it is a brilliant place for a venue as you feel you’ve discovered a secret that few people know about.  Entering the space faced with a maze of corridors and crazy décor the venue becomes more and more intriguing.  Stumbling across an air raid shelter while trying to find the toilets and with a toy train suspended on the ceiling in the bar area it is like a mismatched old pub, but much cooler.

But I wasn’t just there to admire these secret tunnels.  I wanted to see how In-finite Space had developed since the Science Museum event – and I was not disappointed! The whole performance has changed significantly, with only a few recognisable elements.  The jugglers have completely gone, and so has the literal demonstration of the universe.  Instead the show explores your favourite spaces and you, the audience, contribute your favourite spaces (either physical, emotional or virtual).  The dancers then take these and work the spaces into their routine.

We are encouraged to tweet our favourite spaces before entering the performance, as well as during the show.  As with anything this participatory, the performers are relying on the audience.  And at times, it felt that the audience that I was part of weren’t particularly useful.  Tweets of favourite spaces seemed to keep repeating themselves on the screen and dancers had to repeat what tweet they were interpreting which was a shame. If the audience had all tweeted there would have been so much more material on offer.  Always a risk I suppose but one that could pay off had the audience engaged more. 

On entering the performance space everyone was given torches, and encouraged to wander around the dancers positioned around the room, who appeared to come alive once the torches were pointed at them.  I enjoyed this, it felt like an art installation that you had control over.  The show started with an energetic and exciting dance by two of the dancers – they had brilliant chemistry and seemed to bounce of each other as they flew around the room.  Particularly funny moments occurred when they paused and mimicked members of the audience. 

The tweets that were sent were very cleverly interpreted.  Rather than literally mimicking the actions described in the space, the dancers created brilliant improvisations that bought the sensations of those spaces alive. It was also interesting how one of my spaces was interpreted completely differently to how I felt.  I said that one of my favourite spaces is when you’re on a long train journey, and you’re listening to your favourite music.  For me, that would mean quite chilled and anthemic music as you’re whizzing through the countryside. However the dancer who read my tweet obviously thought it meant really upbeat dance music and proceeded to perform quite a manic dance.  Not really what I had considered but fascinating! Another great thing about seeing other people interpret your thoughts.  Overall the social media aspect worked much better than in the Science Museum show as it was obvious how our tweets were being used – again just a shame that not all the audience are as engaged.

There were a couple of things from the Science Museum show that I missed, the set and costumes were much more basic and given the fascinating space I think more could have been done.  Also, the live beatboxer worked so well at In-finite Space #1 I was disappointed to see he wasn't back.  The music was good but it lacked the thrill of being created right in-front of you.

Overall IJAD have done it again – created a performance that completely engaged and excited me in a unique venue.  I can’t wait for the next one.