Run It Back

Much like all the best club nights, Talawa’s Run It Back starts in a pitch-black room with the faint smell of cocoa butter in the air. Then the lights crash on to reveal Amanda Mascarenhas’ set, a multi-tier scaffolding unit on wheels, decorated on all levels with an assemblage of limber bodies, ready to get ‘turnt’.

Nestled in the centre of the crowd, DJ Psykhomantus provides the soundtrack for the evening on a traditional set up of two turntables and a mixer. His balletic hand movements take us through a selection of seminal moments in Black music history – from lovers rock and R’n’B, to dancehall and soca, to garage and grime. Every single track is a banger.

The action takes place over the course of a night at the club. There’s a sound clash, dance battles and the obligatory hometime scuffle. Coral Messam’s production may be full of exuberance, but it’s not an uncritical celebration. The piece also offers gentle interrogation of some of the more problematic elements of music and club culture, by highlighting homophobic lyrics and violently misogynist behaviour that so often goes unchecked.

Messam’s movement direction is sublime. The choreography is perfectly matched to the beat and tempo of each section. You see it best against the sensual backdrop of lovers rock music where the bodies in the space are moving, yet they’re perfectly still.

Take your fans, your whistles, and your flags. This one’s for the culture.