Igor × Moreno’s Petricore for Zagreb Dance Company

Under dimmed neon light from a narrow portal, five women move with unsettling synchronicity. Petricore, Zagreb Dance Company’s latest work by Sardinia-based duo Igor × Moreno, premiered to the sound of crickets, and a kind of mesmeric suspension that makes you unsure whether time has stopped or flattened.

When the first dancer appears, she fixes us with unnerving directness. The second mirrors her perfectly. By the time all five emerge, identically dressed in grey-blue uniforms with slicked-back hair, we’re witnessing something between folk celebration and Borg assimilation (the hive-mind civilisation from Star Trek). The ethereal meandering of their circle dance should be comforting, yet there’s something quietly dystopian about such unity. They don’t just reflect one another – they reflect us, echoing gestures and facial expressions as though studying human behaviour. Is this empathy or a masterclass in conformity?

They place their hands on their knees, cross their arms, wave, slip into a shy pose, make the OK sign, offer high-fives, mime pulling a thorn from a foot, press a hand to the heart, and eventually move on all fours like animals. Igor × Moreno’s choreographic structure avoids fireworks: no athletic feats, no dramatic flourishes, just everyday motions rendered hypnotic through collective repetition. It’s either profound minimalism or very pretty bareness, depending on your tolerance for theatrical meditation.

Then comes rain. Real water droplets, falling on stage while five bodies stand motionless. When they finally move, executing moonwalks across the wet floor, the pop-cultural reference becomes unexpectedly touching. Group singing closes the piece, echoing harvest rituals for a post-agrarian age.

Should we worry about five dancers thinking as one? Perhaps. But at the end of a noisy day, their gentle collectivism feels almost radical. It’s easy to dismiss Petricore as ‘nice mainstream theatre’ – and it is nice. Yet there’s something subversive in a performance that quietly places empathy above ego, connection above competition.

Petricore functions as aesthetic balm, social commentary, and bodily meditation in one effective package. What emerges from watching five bodies move as one is oddly reassuring: individual quirks don’t vanish inside the group but become more visible. Whether that’s the intention or simply the effect, it works. And whether the result is comforting or disquieting may depend on how much faith you place in the collective mind. ●