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Past Work THEATRE WORK
The If Path
Poster for the show
(Mask: Aline Stanway)


The If Path
Masked ball

The If Path
Solo with frame (Ayala Kingsley)


THE IF PATH - March 2003

"Moments of breathtaking beauty"
(Jenny Enarsson, BBC website)

The If Path was Café Reason's first full-length work for the theatre, a fluid, intermingled skein of improvised solos, duets and larger ensembles. The performance follows the dancers' journey between alternative possibilities, along a narrow path linking past and future, dream and reality, safety and risk.

Devised collaboratively, The If Path is an allegory for life's uncertain progress and the paralysing dilemma of choice. The finite area of the stage becomes a space where anything is possible, where the very act of crossing it is one of discovery, and an engagement with fate. The dancers must meet the physical limitations of their environment-gravity, structural barriers, the geometry of space, and also the limitations of their bodies, their courage and their imagination. They explore a surreal corridor, where each corner turned offers a chance encounter, where through each doorway lies an alternative universe. We all, whether we realise it or not, walk an 'if' path, a precarious footing, leading into the unknown.

"Midway in life's journey, I found myself in a dark wood, for the straight way was lost..."
(Inferno. Canto I  Dante Alegheri)