In the Brain, Shechter II
IN THE BRAIN, Shechter II © Todd MacDonald
“Good evening and welcome to the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Please take your seats, the performance will be starting in one minute.”
I consider the bar queue in front of me, which for the last five minutes had been intent on staying the same length, calculating the likelihood they would delay starting the show while there were patrons outside versus how thirsty I really was. Not wanting to miss the show, I chose to ignore my parched mouth (punishment for marching across the Thames in a polyester dress in summer) and rushed to find my seat. Which I sat in patiently, rationing my practically empty water bottle, for ten minutes until the show finally began at 19:40. Once again, my risk averse brain had got me in trouble.
I don’t write this to call out the Southbank’s inefficient bar team or their panic-inducing tannoy, but to find reason for why, when everyone around me walked out of the Queen Elizabeth Hall in elation (one presumed dance student exclaimed she was filled to the brim with ideas) I left glad it was over.
IN THE BRAIN, Shechter II © Todd MacDonald
There is no doubt that Shechter II (the junior company to the renowned Hofesh Shechter company) are impeccable dancers. They moved with such litheness, such dexterity, such control. Shechter’s choreography often waded into a bobbing motion, the dancers compressing and expanding their torsos as they performed a marching two-step, before crashing into a tortured, possessed rave only to switch back to the slow, arms raised to the sides. At first glance it may not look difficult, the choreography rarely required feats of high flexibility for example. However, the control required to make it look this slick paired with their ability to switch between differing levels of erratic-ness highlighted that, despite being a ‘junior’ company, we were witnessing dancers of the highest calibre.
Despite this talent, the choreography itself struggled to give me anything, to take me on a journey, to make me feel, to leave me pondering interpretation into the night except ‘that was a fun rave’. To be fair to Shechter, he once admitted in a post-show Q&A that his work does not necessarily have meaning, that he doesn’t want to impose his own thought process onto the audience. And in actuality, IN THE BRAIN’s purpose really is just a rave: ‘a space … to surrender to the rush of movement’. Which it achieved.
IN THE BRAIN, Shechter II © Todd MacDonald
Meaningless dance is perfectly valid. Famous short ballets such as Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky pas de deux come to mind or the contemporary work of my beloved William Forsythe. However, when the choreography is as stagnant as this, repeating the same pastiches over and over, with little development apart from the odd music dynamic or lighting change (which felt reminiscent of his previous work Theatre of Dreams, although he isn’t the only choreographer to have a signature design style) it tires easily.
★★★
IN THE BRAIN, Hofesh Shechter
Performed by Shechter II
Southbank Centre, London / 23 June 2026
Press ticket
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