Perth International Arts Festival -
Aakash Odedra Company: "Rising" -
Heath Ledger Theatre, 19 February -
"Rising" was originally performed in 2012 in the UK and features Birmingham-born dancer Aakash Odedra in four solos, one of which he choreographed himself. The other three solos were created by a trio of luminaries in the contemporary dance world: Akram Khan's In the Shadow of Man, Russell Maliphant's CUT and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Constellations. Odedra’s training in the classical Indian dance styles of kathak and bharata natyam is referenced in all four works, but the dance language in each piece is impressively unique. On its opening night in Perth, Odedra's singular performance in this wonderfully fertile production beguiled, delighted and astonished.
Set to the recorded sounds of sitar and tabla in music he arranged himself, Odedra's Nritta opened the program and his facility and flair were arresting from the outset. Dressed simply in white kurta-style attire, Odedra began in the centre of a darkened stage under a single orb of light and slowly built momentum from complex, rhythmic, flat-footed stamps and cleanly articulated hand gestures to soaring jumps that carved the air as he travelled across the stage at speed. He unleashed powerful whip-fast spins, and effortlessly held sustained poses before he knelt, bowing his head in reverence.
Akram Khan's In the Shadow of Man followed after a short pause. The lighting design by Michael Hulls is crucial to the creation of the images and raw shapes emerging in this work. It was hard to believe that the dimly lit, hunched creature in the darkness was the same dancer who had performed Nritta. Beneath a single rust-coloured light, with his back to the audience, Odedra released primitive screams, grunts and howls to Jocelyn Pook's thumping, threatening, soundscape. Bare-chested and in loose pants, Odedra's barely-visible back, shoulders and shoulder-blades found animalistic configurations, and his curved, grounded body and sinuous, pliant limbs seemed to become an organic, suffering being. This unforgettable work drew the loudest cheers of the evening.
Russell Maliphant's CUT opened the second half of the program and again the sophisticated lighting design by Michael Hulls is integral to the work. On a smoke-hazed stage Odedra, in light-coloured loose pants and singlet top, began in a triangular shaft of light and as he moved, dancing flashes of light illuminated parts of his figure, and glimpses of his hands, arms, legs, body and face glinted through the gloom. His sharply articulated movements picked up the light, emphasising his precision as he danced. He spun and moved in circles and pathways of light to Andy Cowton's evocative, pulsing electronic sounds, and these lit images and Odedra's extraordinary physicality were mesmerising.
After a short pause Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Constellations concluded the performance and generated a softer mood and some more conventional contemporary dance steps. With a glorious lighting design by Willy Cessa and some melodious piano music by Olga Wojcieowska, Odedra, wearing a white loose top and pants, moved lightly about, lithe and graceful, at times on his knees, or supple and arching in backbends in what is a more meditative, spiritual work. One by one he carried, suspended and lit more than a dozen light-globes, creating a heavenly sky of glowing orbs, which swung and magically darted about the stage. Odedra reverently extinguished all but one light as if part of a sacred ritual before he sat trembling and shaking as the last light flickered and died. He then made his final reverence to rousing, heartfelt applause.
- Margaret Mercer