Melbourne Recital Centre, October 7
Assembly, created for eight dancers and a chorus of some 50 singers, is Gideon Obarzanek's final production for Chunky Move, the company he created in 1995, before he steps down as its artistic director and principal choreographer. And it constituted something of a departure for him. In contrast to much of his recent work which has relied heavily on technology, Assembly relies on people for all its content - both movement and sound. There are no instruments involved - all the sounds are those which the human body can produce, from walking, running and falling, to breathing, speaking, tongue clicks, screaming - and, of course, singing.
The repertoire chosen came, with the exception of the final song, from early music, ranging from the chromaticism of Gesualdo to plainchant and the sacred Christian music of Victoria and Purcell. One would like to think that such spiritually and emotionally charged music would elicit a choreographic response to it but, sadly, this was not the case. On the whole, the movement had little to do with the music, which it seemed largely to disregard, with the possible exception of the last piece, sung solo by Paul Capsis, "My World is Empty Without You". Here the central figure as the focal point of the cluster of human bodies which gradually falls away leaving him flanked by fewer and fewer dancers, was quite effective and conveyed some of the emotional poignancy of the music.
The choreography in general seemed to be excessively limited by the set - a large set of stairs with several landings. This could make for effective groupings but also restricted the movement vocabulary. Quite a lot of use was made by the dancers of rolling - and falling - down the stairs, not to mention rolling up them. The massed crowd scenes of clusters forming, dissolving and reforming were quite effective, especially when used as a musical accelerando and crescendo, or when the colours of the costumes were used to organise the chorus into colour-coded clusters, but, once again, these clusters did not seem to achieve much dramatically. And all too often, the choreography was "about" different ways of getting up and down stairs (as opposed to another phase choreographers went through of thinking up things to do with chairs).
Some of the work on show was reminiscent of experimental voice and movement actors' workshops of the last few decades which had actors experimenting with group dynamics to the accompaniment of self-generated sounds. Liza Mayer and Monika Pagneux spring to mind as successful teachers of this kind of work. It can be satisfying to participate in, as well as freeing vocally, emotionally and in terms of movement. However, it then works best if put at the service of a production and used to enhance the artists' expressive possibilities. Otherwise it remains at the level workshop material, useful for the participants but not really needing an audience. This might explain the feeling of irritation which would sometimes arise in watching Assembly - the audience was not really given the means to identify with what action there was, vicariously or otherwise, while the work itself also did not often reach out to absorb the audience in a connection whether with the crowd or with the isolated individual.
Insofar as it was "about" anything, Assembly seemed to be less about crowds than about being alone in a crowd with the sense of alienation that implies. So if there was an overriding sense that remained it was alienation - from the music, the individuals and the performance.
Regarding the singing, the male voices did better than the female voices who often sounded somewhat unnatural and strained - and constrained - with an unpleasant sense of forcing the tone, quite unnecessary in the excellent acoustics of the Melbourne Recital Centre.
However, it is interesting that there is so much interest in combining movement and voice, dancers and singers in an integrated performance. One artform can enhance the other, opening up greater dimensions of expression and depth, as many traditional cultures show. It is a path worth pursuing.
- IRINA KUZMINSKY