Trisha Brown Dance Company: “Early works” -
Arts House, Meat Market, 22 October -
Trisha Brown Dance Company: "Pure Movement program I and II" -
Arts Centre, Playhouse, 23 & 25 October -
Shaun Parker & Company: Am I -
Malthouse, Merlyn Theatre, 24 October -
Trisha Brown is a legendary figure of contemporary American dance and it has been terrific to get a concentrated dose of her oeuvre in a survey season of programs as part of the Melbourne International Festival.
Brown's work is both playful and deeply intentioned and it seems that these elements have been persistent over time. Her early work examines and plays with systems, repetitions, inversions and reversals and is, at times, predicated upon specific mathematical ideas. The result is a mixture of precision and whimsy; physical rigour with a sense of looseness.
The "Early Works" program was shown in the vast open space of the Meat Market and allowed a free-ranging audience to experience the work from all angles. Added to this was the fact that the works have their own take on spatiality. Accumulation is performed predominantly lying down; the use of sticks in a number of the pieces reveals sculptural and architectural dimensions. This was a wonderful program that felt light-hearted, generous but absolute in its purpose and discipline. These works, all from the early 70's (except for, curl, curve, back up from 2011), were very fresh and vital, reminding how free and rich with possibility the landscape for choreographic invention must have seemed at that time.
The two programs of "Pure Movement" both featured Newark (Niweweorce), a group piece from 1987 that features the specific physicalities of male and female dancers and was the only one in this program to utilise lifts. It uses pauses and suspensions to set phrases of movement and an intermittent sound score of sustained tones that adds texture and surprise.
If You Couldn't See Me is a solo work for a female who dances the entire piece with her back to the audience. Beautiful elongations and swirling arm movements speak expressively to the audience. It is interesting to see the back of the body activated consistently throughout a work. Lighting was warm and atmospheric and it was a contrast to see both a solo work and a very feminine quality.
Son of Gone Fishin' is another group work that highlights the signature swinging arms and a loose, bouncy quality of soft knees, folds and rotations while moving through tightly organised patterns, unisons and dispersals. It features psychedelic music by Robert Ashley.
The second program had some wonderful surprises in store with the inclusion of Set and Reset, a very fluid, pacy and free work. Transparent, loose, geometric printed costumes enhance the sense of flow and its incredibly elastic movement language has an infectious quality that makes you want to dance with it.
Another gem was Les Yeux et l'âme set to Rameau's music and based on his opera, Pygmalion. This work is delightfully different and almost classical in style. It has a swirling, easeful quality exploiting multiple partnering combinations. The simple line drawing backdrop and pale flowing tunics add to the dream-like quality.
Across the road at the Malthouse, Am I by Shaun Parker & Company was dazzling. This exquisitely danced work combines live music and story in a complete performance experience. The idea of defining identity is taken to stratospheric heights with investigations of cosmology, brain function, survival instinct and persistent human drives. Am I is a compulsive and expansive neurological fairy tale. Narrative episodes are interwoven into the fabric of the work and prepare the audience for specific dance explorations and moods. Although I am not a fan of this particular style of story telling - I find it over-articulated and self-conscious - it does its job in particularising and contextualising what the choreography is seeking to achieve and the audience enjoyed its half serious tone with its edge of self-mockery delivered by Shantala Shivalingappa.
The dancing and choreography were stunning across the board. An early section makes much of complex hand gestures, interlocking of elbows and wrists and face framing. Later, human artifacts add to the visual interest and seem to be conjured to life themselves. Metal batons are weapons or objects of ritual, flail out or pattern themselves to represent the symbols of deities and worship. At times they create an illusion of leading the dance. Similarly a metallic fan is sharp and dangerous, powerful and beautiful.
Damian Cooper's lighting design is incredibly effective. His wall of light globes is used throughout to suggest, perhaps levels of neurological activity. A blinding burst early on is accompanied by intense warmth and may signify birth or the urgent firing of neurones.
The music, by Nick Wales, is compelling with its intriguing cross cultural references to Armenian song, Middle Eastern rhythms and Indian and medieval influences. The musicians were wonderful, placed above a wall of light globes in dusky light, visible but not distracting.
- SUSAN BENDALL