Townsville
July 28
Dance, music and voice are equal partners in Abandon, a work developed by Dancenorth’s Raewyn Hill in collaboration with Lindy Hume (Opera Queensland’s artistic director), and musician James Crabbe.
The da capo aria, prevalent in the Baroque era, was the inspiration for Abandon. The aria’s three-part structure, where the third part is a repeat of the first, but with the singer’s own vocal embellishments, intrigued all three collaborators, as did the psychological landscapes that the typical da capo aria explores in depth, running the gamut from joy to grief, jealousy and loss.
Eighteen of these arias, all by Handel, were then linked together to form a three-part work that, while seamlessly travelling across this emotional landscape, had no apparent logical progression, narrative, or single underpinning hypothesis.
A short heraldic overture introduced the performers as they took up their positions on the stage. Crabbe cleverly adapted the baroque orchestral scores for piano accordion, which successfully aped the percussive elements, with cello providing the requisite richness. Crabbe on the accordion and Teije Hylkema on cello were both always very “present” throughout as performers, which added yet another layer to the work.
Abandon is a richly visual work. In another inspired design for dance by Bruce McKinven, an enclosed set comprising three solid looking walls of brown cardboard boxes stacked to the lights also became part of the dance as sections were removed and rearranged to suit.
A minute into the work and the “carpet” of black tissue paper was scraped away by the dragging movement of dancers travelling across the floor, revealing the whiteness of the tarkett underneath. The crumpled pieces of tissue then became part of the action as they were piled high into a corner, burying the performers, or came spewing forth from a gap in the wall.
Abandon showed a further consolidation of Hill’s choreographic style. She creates grounded movement that cuts huge swathes, eating the space, but with a seamless fluidity that still has the weightiness of molten lead. As the dancers, here in black and maroon pants and loose tunic tops, also wear black canvas sneakers, there is little evidence of demi-pointe, and this adds another layer to the movement aesthetic. Done well it is quite hypnotic to watch.
This effortlessness is underpinned by a rigorous technique and Hill’s fine ensemble of dancers have that. Alice Hinde, the longest serving member, was beautifully fluid in a short solo early in the work. Erynne Mulholland looked poised and elegant as was lifted, statue-like, metres into the air, her overly long skirt concealing the supporting dancers.
Newcomer France Herve’s flaming red hair which fell below her hips (a hairpiece I believe) unfortunately became more the focus than the dancer, as it was swung through the air (with some dexterity I admit) against and with the movement.
A distinct change in mood from solemn to the comic saw the nuggetty Brad Chatfield (in a welcome return to the stage) engage in pugilistic moves with Crabbe and his accordion, while recent NZSD graduate Andrew Searle, the youngest performer on stage, had a strong presence and was well in command in the final moments of the work. He ate up the space with circular movements of arms and legs, spiralling across the floor, as the remaining performers reconstructed the set wall into a barrier across the front of the stage.
All four singers were superb in their interpretations of the devilishly difficult arias, and also moved with much grace as they repeated many of the dancers movements, standing, sitting or lying down: Annie Lower, Elizabeth Lewis, Monique Latemore and Christopher Richardson. Especially haunting was the beautifully tight groupings of all the performers that then hypnotically moved as if a single pulsating organism. Abandon is a journey undertaken through dialogue between dancers, singers and musicians, but one that travels irrationally from apparent order to chaos. The sublime communication between movement, voice and instrument, however, makes this journey quite inspirational.
– DENISE RICHARDSON
Photo: Bottlebrush Studios