Sylvie Guillem: "Push" and "6000 Miles Away" -
Melbourne Festival -
Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, 23 and 27 October -
A body moving in space is all you need if it is such a body. Certainly this is the case with Sylvie Guillem. In two programs for the Melbourne Festival, Guillem asserted her technical and interpretive supremacy. "Push" is choreographed by Russell Maliphant, who also partners Guillem, while "6000 Miles Away" is a triple bill of legendary contemporary choreographers, Jiri Kylian, William Forsythe and Mats Ek.
Maggie Tonkin reviewed "6000 Miles Away" for Dance Australia in March when it was presented at the Adelaide Festival. Read Maggie's review here. I would like to add only to Maggie's review by saying that, for me, Kylian's work registered beautiful subtlety and emotional charge in the dancing by Aurelie Cayla and Kenta Korjiri (Vaclav Kunes and Natasa Novotna were seen in Adelaide). Forsythe's Rearray is, indeed, a masterpiece.
"Push" was the stronger of the two programs for its coherence. It comprises three solos in the first half, followed by a duet after an interval. The solos work as a suite of meditations, foregrounding particular aspects of the dancers' artistry and drawing attention to particular articulations of their bodies. Guillem performs two of Maliphant's solos. The first is set to the Flamenco-influenced music of Carlos Montoya and its hard-edged and dramatic quality contrasts with Guillem's liquid leg extensions, effortless flow of movement, and gentle coolness. Guillem travels through and across the musical score rather than with it. There is an aloofness that suits the music but mainly they feel like separate entities that have met by chance. Lighting intensifies a feeling of detachment as the face is seldom revealed in light.
The second of Guillem's solos refocuses attention from the legs and torso to the upper body. Again lighting is employed, this time to illuminate the musculature of her back and shoulders. Facing the audience, she bends forward deeply, arm extended above and behind her shoulder-line. Movements begin in a slow, mesmerising sequence of repetitions. As the music increases in rhythmic intensity, the dance responds by driving Guillem into a dynamic maelstrom of swirling arms and dramatic leg kicks. Control and flow combine once more with cool intensity.
Maliphant's solo Shift is the middle work and is extremely interesting and hypnotic. It is an exercise in subtlety, using slight movements of the head, bends of knees and twists of the torso to travel through a meditative landscape that expands to include giant projected shadows of the dancer, transforming it into a perfectly synchronous duet, then a trio. This device draws attention to minute shifts in detail and also to the differences between the real, solidly corporeal, and the illusory. The solo builds to incorporate more dramatic martial-arts-like kicks and spins.
The denouement of the program is the duet, Push. Its opening sequences are a series of short episodes that trace the journey of a lift from its peak to the floor. These commence in darkness and dissolve back into darkness. While supported by Maliphant, Guillem folds backwards, her head toward the floor, in line with his extended leg line. Guillem is gently cradled and placed to the floor. The series continues with twining, circularity and with poses held at angles from Maliphant's central supporting body. The shapes are sculptural and exquisitely controlled.
The dance modulates into a section including some weightless runs and swift turns and then one in which the partners explore the tensions of counterbalance and giving over weight to the other. More fitful movements follow with varied phrasing and suspensions. Guillem winds herself across Maliphant's body, their bodies fold over one another.
The partnership between Guillem and Maliphant is mutually enriching. Maliphant's partnering is calm and generous in maximising Guillem's remarkable facility, especially her jaw-droppingly perfect line and physique and, of course works to show off his own dance making. There has been some debate as to the level of emotional engagement shown by the dancers in these works. Some viewers have found them to be immensely emotionally involving, whilst others registered them as being almost clinical. For me, the relative coolness revealed a reflective communication that had its own emotional tone and resonances. Here is a collaboration between two consummate and very self-aware artists who are forging dance that is deliberate in its breath-taking aesthetic.
- SUSAN BENDALL