Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre (Ireland) -
Rite of Spring / Petrushka -
Playhouse, September 25 -
Aakash Odedra Company (UK) -
Rising -
Brisbane Powerhouse -
September 27-
The diversity that is contemporary dance has been exemplified this Brisbane Festival, no more so than by these two companies performing concurrently in different theatres.
Michael Keegan-Dolan contribution to the Festival is inspired. He has reimagined two iconic works, Rite of Spring and Petrushka, for his Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre, and in so doing has honoured not only the Stravinsky scores, wonderfully played live on piano by Lidija and Sanja Bizjak, but also the rich and powerful themes underpinning both.
Both works are truly theatrical, but Rite of Spring is the more potent, capturing the raw, primal brutality of humanity that Stravinsky celebrates in his score. The movement of stamping, nodding and jumping, in a literal interpretation of the music, is mesmeric; the 14 mainly male dancers, of an eclectic ethnicity and wearing heavy winter garb, showing wonderful suspension and perfect synchronisation with the score.
The imagery is powerful, from the dominant female character’s first guttural spit onto the stage floor to the large brown boxes marked “fragile” that are opened to reveal life-like masks of dogs’ heads, pink tongues dangling lasciviously. Simulated sex and full nudity as the dancers strip to put on floral “spring” dresses, before donning these masks for the final sacrificial assault, put one in mind of the work’s controversial 1913 Paris premiere.
Petrushka uses the same central female character, this time as puppet master, suspended high on a pole stage left, outside the proscenium, from whence she directs the action. The plain white of the dancers’ costumes set against the floating white silk walls that contains them on three sides is in contrast to the black open space of Rite.
Again the movement is very much a literal interpretation of the score; light, rhythmic, but more joyous, with greater use of the torso and arms - rather folk-like. The darker undertones of the unrequited love of one puppet for another are emphasised by live drumming, leading to a visually poetic but surprising ending that leaves the audience gasping.
Aakash Odedra and Company’s Rising comprised four solos, all performed by Odedra. The first, “Nritta”, a classical Kathak variation that focusses on the virtuosity of the technique and choreographed by Odedra himself, is a study in precision, with the deft fluid Kathak movement punctuated by sustained pauses. It is a little long, but clearly demonstrates the technical prowess underpinning Odedra’s subsequent performance.
Akram Khan’s “In the Shadow of Man” which explores the “animal” within us all, to my mind is the least successful of the solos, mainly because it is so under lit. The shafts of soft light that shoot horizontally across the floor barely illuminate Odedra in a movement construct that is constrained and contained, punctuated by the vocalisation of animal noises and accompanied by a pulsing soundtrack.
Both Russell Maliphant’s “Cut” and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s “Constellation”, however, use light to great effect as an integral part of their works.
“Cut” works with triangular shafts of light that cast a thin line horizontally across the floor. Standing behind in blackout, Odedra’s hands and arms then "dance" in an out of the light, seemingly disembodied. The triangles then multiply and expand as the Kathak-based movement also develops – fluid, precise and commanding the space.
The rather poetic “Constellation” makes the perfect ending to a well-constructed program of otherwise discrete works. Suspended at the edges of the black space, 10 or so large light bulbs cast a yellow glow across the stage as they also “dance” on their invisible tethers. Here the movement shows less of the Kathak influence with greater use of the floor. It iS a serenely beautiful work.
The stunning lighting designs (Michael Hulls and Willy Cessa) of the last two works are enabled by the use of a smoky haze which saturates the space. This haze also allows the focus to be more intimately drawn to Odedra – he is sculpted, compact and compelling.
– DENISE RICHARDSON