Edinburgh fringe dance: Dep – review

 

Dep by Van Huynh Company.
 Dep by Van Huynh Company. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

 

Dam Van Huynh’s Dep (Zoo, Southside) was inspired by Vietnamese rituals for the dead. Set to an unobtrusive but haunting score by Martyna Poznańska, and performed by four men and two women, all nude throughout, the piece tracks the process of loss. The dancers lurch off balance and collapse like sheds, poleaxed by grief. They effortfully reanimate each other. It’s a raw process; Van Huynh’s roiling, sweaty bodies are as actual as they are metaphorical. We, and the dancers, are forcefully confronted with our frailty, but also, ultimately, with our capacity for regeneration. Life goes on.

Link to review