Earthfall trained up with a boxing coach in preparation for the production of Rococo Blood and continued with the notion of ‘idiot savant’, except this time the Gerald Tyler character developed from Fabulous Wounds into a comic-cum-bigot has-been boxer. He was sometimes suspended 5 metres in the air, ranting and air-boxing as the dancing continued below his feet. Ennis and Cohen encouraged an astute blurring of lines between poetic fancy and deliberate manipulative deception. The choreography moved from urban street-dance and fight-club wrestling to the subtlety of a caressing hand that turns possessive.
Earthfall drew from local Welsh history and researched the life of Cardiff boxing legend and philanthropist, Jimmy Driscoll and the history of the mining communities. A strong reference to Norman Mailer’s book, The Fight and Martin Scorsese’s film Raging Bull mixed with impersonations of Robert De Niro and dark sequences of domestic violence to pepper the work. Live music underpinned the energy of Rococo Blood with Roger Mills joining Jon Wygens to create trumpet layered sounds blending with acoustic and Dick Dale-like guitar and synth and scratch with layers of voices including, Norman Mailer, Mohammed Ali and De Niro himself. Mike Brookes created an abstract blood red Boxing Square with under floor lighting.
The work premiered in Cardiff, Wales and toured throughout the UK and mainland Europe including performances at London’s Spring Loaded, the Absolutt Theatre Festival in Norway and Amsterdam’s Dance Theatre Season
