DANCE,
State Theatre Centre of WA
February, 2012
Commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music and first conceived in 1979, Dance has been referred to as one of the great post-modern works of the 20th century. It combines the creative visions of choreographer Lucinda Childs, composer Philip Glass and visual artist Sol leWitt. Minimalist in structure and style, its use of film inspired dance makers at the time to explore new ways of staging contemporary dance.
Remounted by Childs in 2009 for Bard College in New York State with Childs' original choreography, Glass's original score, and the late Sol leWitt's 35mm black and white film of the original cast digitally remastered, Dance has since toured to San Francisco, London and Vienna.
Getting Lucinda Childs' Dance to Australia was one of new Perth International Arts Festival director Jonathan Holloway's first decisions. The troupe was brought direct from New York and back to perform exclusively in Perth, presenting four performances to dedicated contemporary dance followers. It must have been a rather costly exercise.
Perth Festival has a long history of introducing audiences to international contemporary dance companies and the Heath Ledger Theatre with only 575 seats is usually ideal for viewing dance from any seat in the auditorium. Unfortunately this was not the case for the opening performance of Dance as my seat, C 27 on the outside aisle in the stalls, had a close, direct and distracting view of side stage OP, with visible lights, dancers exiting and waiting to enter, a loss of distinct stage patterns and a skewed view of the filmed figures projected onto the front scrim.
Dance is in three sections of 20 minutes each. It begins with 10 dancers in pairs and small groupings, clothed in white, long-sleeved leotards, white pants and shoes, criss-crossing the stage with little jetés, temps levés, gallops and springs. These steps are repeated throughout with minor variations. Images of the 1979 cast performing the same steps are projected onto the scrim and the filmed dancers benefit from a softer focus and slight distortion, creating an interesting dynamic to their movement.
The second section is a solo, which is in effect a duet across the years for Lucinda Childs on film from 1979 and Caitlin Scranton on stage. Childs is very much the focus of attention in this section and her image is projected, beautiful and otherworldly, towering over the stage. Stage blacks left ajar upstage caused light spills and the sight of dancers crossing, which detracted from the mood at times.
By the third section the monotony of an overloud sound level and sameness of movement was testing as simple balancés and slight turning steps were added. However, Dance built markedly towards the end with changes in lighting states and colours, some very effective freeze-framed images and all of the dancers, both filmed and projected in split sections and levels and "live", apparently dancing on stage together.
Expressionless and with no eye contact throughout, Lucinda Childs' Dance Company performed with admirable concentration and aerobic endurance. There were several terrific dancers and all worked with commendable discipline, accuracy and musicality and clearly were capable of much more complex choreography than the 1979 minimalist kinetic demands of Dance.
Dance needs to be considered within the context of its time and valued place in an historical archive of contemporary dance. As it was, with an almost full house and many invited guests, Dance received a warm audience response from a respectful and generous Perth audience. The company's palpable joy during the curtain calls was infectious. Disappointingly for me, the work in 2012 was much more intriguing to read about and discuss than to observe.
- MARGARET MERCER