Bremen

A black square on the floor, barely larger than a rug. Cold light, a couple with their backs to us, he in a shirt, she in a knee-length skirt. They seem unassuming, holding each other's hand. In her new piece Where We Stand, the Dutch artist Fay van Baar explores the dwindling civic courage as soon as a collective gets involved: the "someone else will help" phenomenon. Premiered as part of a double bill at the Bremen Schwankhalle, Fay van Baar and the Ensemble Of Curious Nature (OCN) transport us to an unsettling atmosphere, perhaps a subway shaft? She tilts, he holds her. Tension. She tilts into the square, seems disoriented, struggles, wants to break free. People creep up. It seems as if they don't want to be seen. The dancers move as if in a dream, sometimes in unison, sometimes each on ...