Unknown Soldier - Alison Ray Dance Company
Camden Peoples Theatre, 58-60 Hampstead Road, London, NW1 2PY, England.
Reviewed by Khalia Willett
The Unknown Soldier is an immersive experience. The marriage between dance and composers, is ever strengthened by the stage presence of the musicians. The combination of music and dance opens a portal that transports the viewer into what would have been the reality for many black soldiers within the world war such as Ulric Cross. Ulric volunteered to be apat of the RAF, he was renowned as a fearless pilot who progressed up the ranks acting as a high commissioner in london as well as other roles in Germany and France. He is an example of the great men that went back to their home countries and made significant changes to laws and the quality of life being lived in Trinidad and Tobago (where Ulric was from). The raw repetition of minimalist movement is developed throughout the piece. This heightens your auditory and visual senses drawing you further into the world of these ‘Unknown Soldiers’; we explore their experiences, the pain they endured, and become aware of how to this day many of these soldiers and what they did is not being remembered, valued or commemorated!
The Unknown Soldier was partly inspired 10 – 20 years ago when Alison was child by the life of Errol Barrow and his personal relationship with war. Barrow and his counterparts ever growing relationships with women and the roles they played entertaining, leading and supporting the men who were often strategically placed on the front line with no recognition for the brave and chivalrous choices they made. This is elegantly portrayed within Alison Ray’s choreography in which she depicts the uncertainty of war, the balance between life and death, known and unknown soldiers, and the importance of uncovering histories.
The choreography uses stillness to build tension and suspense; thus leaving the audience sitting on the edge of their seat’s drawn into the lives of these Black soldiers and experiencing their reality. Ray’s representation of the conditions black caribbean and black African men and women were subjected to and how they used their positions to contribute to a dismantling colonialism within Africa and the West Indies showcases the power and importance of these ‘unknown soldiers’. This is a piece that has a clear intention to educate and open up the much-needed conversation about why there is such limited representation of the Black experience of war. To be seen, to be heard and to be remembered is one of the most important actions towards inclusion and change.