Perth International Arts Festival -
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui: Apocrifu -
Heath Ledger Theatre, 25 February -
Belgian-born choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s 2007 work Apocrifu is one of the highlights of Perth International Arts Festival director Wendy Martin's first Festival, and an Australian exclusive. As Martin was previously Head of Performance and Dance at the Southbank Centre in London, and Head of Theatre and Dance at the Sydney Opera House, it is no surprise that this year's festival includes an especially strong international contemporary dance program. Martin says she is “mad about dance and in the hands of a good choreographer you can be as articulate with the body as with ideas... Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is, without question, I think, the most successful contemporary choreographer in the world.” Cherkaoui's Constellation for Aakash Odedra Company's memorable solo program “Rising”, was seen in the 2015 Perth Festival.
Apocrifu takes its title from the word 'apocrypha' meaning works or words of doubtful authorship or authenticity, particularly relating to condemned texts from various religions. Drawing on multiple genres, Cherkaoui mixes sublime music, different dance disciplines, some spoken word, potent, abstract imagery, and puppetry to pose equality of all cultures and written narratives of different religions and ideologies.
Presiding gloriously over this production are six black-clad members of the mature, all-male Corsican polyphonic vocal ensemble A Filetta. Their divine sounds, powerful presence and interactive, overseeing roles become a uniting force in Apocrifu which also features three mature male dancers including Cherkaoui himself, Yasuyuki Shuto, a classically-trained dancer previously with the Tokyo Ballet, and French dancer/circus artist Dimitri Jourde. A small Japanese Bunraku puppet, a wizened, faceless old man clothed in a grey suit and white shirt, becomes a fourth 'dancer' who is manipulated by the men, brought to entertaining life, and used by Cherkaoui as a device to reveal their kindnesses, shortcomings and cruelties.
With a wide timber stairway leading up to mysterious darkness, the stylish, beautiful, pale-timber set design over two levels by Herman Sorgeloos blends marvellously with the interior timber panelling of the Heath Ledger Theatre auditorium and foyer stairs. Using both levels and the stairway, the performers, including the singers, move and are placed around the set and the stage creating a wealth of arresting images. Mounds of books are piled, scattered and moved about, laid out on the floor to create stepping-stones, and used as weapons and protective shields.
The three dancers, in impressive performances, work with each other and also in solos, and their differing dance styles coming together could be seen as abstract manifestations of different cultures seeking a common 'language'. They begin wearing Kathak ankle bells, which are untied and removed during the performance, the chiming adding to a sombre, hallowed ambience.
In the opening scene Shuto resembles a celestial being from above as he descended the stairway, a silky white-sleeved shirt emphasizing his ethereal, gentle port de bras. His solo sections were slightly hesitant, with carefully placed, classically-based movement. Jourde was athletic, powerful and acrobatic and his body serves at one point as a writing surface. Cherkaoui, so pliant and flexible, seemed troubled as he contorted and coiled his body. The dancers' melding of heads and sections of synchronised movement suggested communication and sharing of thoughts, and their fluent arms and supple hands were as expressive and as eloquent as words.
Cherkaoui's Apocrifu is endlessly inventive and brimming with complex, interesting ideas open to interpretation. Bleak and obscure in parts, it also contains adroit comic moments. And the haunting and astonishingly uplifting sound of A Filetta's extraordinary voices transcends words and language and makes a direct connection with our hearts and minds.
- Margaret Mercer
Photo: Toni Wilkinson