7 Sins – an enchanting and peculiar immersive dance show
After its creation in 2021, choreographed by the members of Moveo Dance Company in collaboration with each other, 7 Sins comes back to Valletta Campus Theater as an immersive dance show where dark tragic irony and an detailed aesthetic are dominant.
The stage was set up in an obscurely suggestive and sophisticated manner with a minimal dark blue lighting. A few pieces of furniture and a bouquet of red roses hanging from the ceiling were intuitively visible thanks to the suffused rays of white lights set on the floor, projected through seven scenographic glasses that became the ballot boxes for the audience to express their vote at the end of the show.
Indeed, at the entrance a short stick is given, clipped on a cryptic message that ends with ‘Judge them kindly, or be cruel, for tonight, dear guest…you rule’. I found myself as part of the small audience who attended the dress rehearsal of the show, being requested to vote, or better ‘to punish’ my favourite sin — the ‘non-winner’ of a competition between the 7 Deadly Sins — Gluttony, Wrath, Lust, Envy, Pride, Sloth and Greed. They had a slot of seven minutes each as solo or duet to persuade, convince and seduce the audience. Personally I found the overturning of reward into punishment and winner into its opposite captivating. It made me wonder for the whole show whether to judge according to the sin that would impress me more performatively, or according to the sin I would consider worthy to be condemned as the worst. This contradiction kept me engaged, forcing myself to carefully grasp the features that would make me eventually choose.
Each sin was portrayed through a unique and engaging variety of expedients that made each of them relatable in a captivating way. Gluttony (Irene Nocella), an innocent nun, hides under the back of her veil an unexpected mouse head that represents her sinful double side. Watching, I wondered how everyone can hide a sinner’s dark side simply turning their back. Remarkable was also the ability to set Wrath and Sloth in a context that may easily happen everyday. Portraying the exact moment when the TV remote has been forgotten far away and it is as if the bed sucks you in, Sloth (Cindelle Bouard) felt incredibly authentic thanks to the blanket that from prop transforms into a costume that swallows the dancer — becoming not only her shell, but also an integrated body part that lazily leads her in space.
Among the others, Envy (Dorian Mallia & Irene Nocella) and Lust (Charlotte Curmi Carpentier) made often the audience burst out laughing thanks to the humorous tragicomical interaction in slow motion of the first — where the duet becomes a fight to destroy one another — and thanks to the hilariousness and unlikelihood of a sexual fantasy that involves Santa Clause.
Under a technical perspective I found the striking drive of Pride (Jonay Malvar Sierra & Charlotte Curmi Carpentier) incredibly touching. The speed of the rhythmical music perfectly matching the franctiness and dramaticity of their combative duet’s pressing lifts and turns, made me feel emotionally engaged and so dazzled that I felt as if I was dancing along with them. Deeply conveying the emotional weight of how the vain desire of a mirror can reject the love someone offers, Curmi Carpentier dances a heartbreaking solo on the notes of Händel’s Lascia ch’io pianga. The clay on her face dramatically spreads all across her body until it is completely petrified through a fragmented movement texture in dissonance with the
melodic flow of the aria, yet perfectly embodying and reflecting its melodrama. I also found incredibly original the male duet of Greed (Giovanni Molendi & Jonay Malvar Sierra) who, with spectacular acrobatic tricks, supreme movement ability and incredible synchronisation, mirrored rap music into a freestyle movement fight.
The common thread I traced through the performance was such a deep ambivalence between irony and tragedy that made me wonder not only how to ultimately express my judgment, but also questioning if they were actually sins deserving to be punished within a competition. I got enchanted by the originality and uniqueness of an attentively detailed aesthetic that was consistently coherent in lights and costumes — from the helpers who changed sets and props, to the presenter of the night (Diane Portelli). Dressed in her obscure and mysterious long dark coat, boots and sunglasses with a classy refined elegance, she seduced me with the intimate captivating oratory of her courtly cultured and posh speeches addressed to the audience, introducing one sin after the other.
7 Sins confirms many of Moveo’s typical features — an original storytelling with an articulated plot development that keeps the spectator intriguingly engaged, an extraordinary execution of a variety of technical movement vocabularies specifically chosen, a subtlety genius sense of humor that I constantly found remarkable and an indeed enviable attention to details in each costumes and each designed shade of light. In other words, another masterpiece, another show that offers an original and unique experience, yet nothing seen before. I usually say to not make irony out of the tragedy and I will keep saying this, but this show was a pleasant exception.
