Revel review – broken Barbies and a splash of Swan Lake as older dancers limber up

The inevitable aches and sprains of an ageing body take on heightened significance for a seasoned dancer turning up to work each day. Revel by Company Chordelia is a whimsical rumination on these changes, and a personal riposte to the fear that you might “make a spectacle of yourself” if you don’t stop at the “right” moment.

It is conceived and staged by the artistic director Kally Lloyd-Jones, who performs with the co-creator Steinvör Palsson, a well-known teacher and choreographer in the Scottish dance community.

Revel opens on an apparently empty dressing room, until Lloyd-Jones suddenly appears from underneath a discarded puffy dress, and Palsson creeps out of a storage crate. The backstage PA system delivers a message: they have – only! – nine hours to get ready.

Each dancer’s warm-up manifests differently: Palsson serenely wafts through her qigong routine, while Lloyd-Jones prefers a strenuous running, lunging, shaking approach. They must do their checklist (but first get their reading glasses). Multivitamins? Check. Alternate nostril breathing? Check. HRT patch? Check.

As the clock counts down, they get lost in dreamlike dance recollections, ranging from Swan Lake to marching gestural sequences, before resuming the crossword with a banana and two chocolate digestives.

Highlights in this stately procession to their curtain call include Palsson’s juicy rendition of Whatever Lola Wants, indulged while Lloyd-Jones runs to the bathroom. They bring out Barbies to demonstrate their former abilities (“I don’t think you could ever do that, Kally”) before smashing the dolls to bits. No amount of exaggerated hunching, however, can hide the dancing histories in their bodies; Lloyd-Jones bounds around the stage with clarity, Palsson hovers delicately on her toes. They have a great comic rapport, every word and beat finely calibrated.

Time runs out, costumes are donned for one last practice; there’s no resisting these performers, aches and all.