Charleroi Danses’ genre defying show of hands and heartbreak is a masterful meditation on love and memory.

Bay 17, Carriageworks, part of the Sydney Festival
January 23, 2014

It may not sound like the most promising premise: a dance-theatre production where we barely see anything of the performers above the wrist. However Belgian company Charleroi Danses have managed to take the most meagre of resources to create an ingenious, insightful and achingly touching show that I suspect will be looked back upon as the stand-out hit of this year’s Sydney Festival.

Kiss & Cry is a genre-defying mix of film, theatre and choreography, which tells the story of Gisele, a lonely old woman lamenting on the loves and losses of her life. Using a series of miniature sets dotted about the stage, this poignant narrative is expressed through a ballet of anthropomorphised hands that twirl, leap, embrace and seduce one another. This microcosm is captured on film before our very eyes and relayed to a cinema-sized screen above, so that we can see up-close the subtleties and attention to detail that have been carefully woven into every scene of this 85 minute work. We’re guided through...