Gasworks, South Melbourne,
June 14
Melbourne has been spoilt with a wealth of visiting companies in town for Let's Dance as part of the Australian Ballet's season. In addition to the taster Momentary on that program, Tasdance is also undertaking an extensive regional tour of Tasmania, Victoria and NSW. Two works being shown under the title “Identity” are The Blur, choreographed by Anton, and Frances Rings's Remembered of Us. These works are well chosen in a program that provides contrast and counterpoint around this theme.
The Blur starts the evening with a twitchy high-energy ode to contemporary city life. The “blur” of the title refers to the frenetic activity that urban humans engage in and especially to their relationship with a multiplicity of screens. Two large, rectangular, hanging perspex sheets partially obscure dancers who, in turn, interact with smaller “screens” of perspex.
The conceit of this piece is that the movement often occurs at an intimate distance and is always symbiotic, while at the same time remaining disengaged and independent. It conveys the separateness and self-absorption of lives caught up in a tangle of “busy-ness”.
In practical terms this translates into interesting configurations within which dancers respond, recoil, explore or collide with “others” with whom they are not consciously aware. Dancers are spatially affected by another's presence without necessarily obviously engaging with them. Even in partnered work, movements at times suggest avoidance rather than engagement; a ballistic leg kick just misses a head, dancers duck and weave in response to a feeling of encroachment that they can't quite pinpoint.
The Blur is an interesting take on the theme of identity. The nervy reactivity of the movement remained interesting as different configurations of dancers formed and reformed. Frenzy at times gave way to slower sections, varying the pace but staying true to a non-lyrical, slightly frazzled style. I wasn't particularly taken by the costuming; brightly-colored play suits for the women and trackies for the men, but the colour did add something in creating the effect of a photograph taken with a slow shutter speed when the movement was particularly frenetic and repetitive. Movement “streams” were created that were quite evocative as trails of light lingered from the rapid, agitated gestures.
In significant contrast, Frances Rings' Remembered of Us draws on the absolute connectedness of humans through family, memory and genetics. She uses the image of a woven wall-hanging, both literally, as a backdrop as well as metaphorically, as the dance traces the interconnectedness of familial ties. The movement quality is immediately expansive and fluid as the six dancers move separately, expressing something of their individual stories while indicating an interrelatedness through brief snippets of spoken biographical detail. An interweaving of pairs, groups and ensemble reinforce the theme of interconnectedness further and there seemed to be a particular intimacy or emotionality in the way the dancers relate to one another in this work, possibly heightened in contrast to The Blur. Pairs of dancers at one point retain contact of head and shoulders as they gently turn, twist and roll against each other.
Remembered of Us works as a series of episodes that flow and dissolve into one another.
Pairs separate and are replaced by dialogues between three dancers, solos melt and the six dancers unite. A lot of the choreography suggests supporting or taking the weight of other dancers but without effort. In a kind of solo, Bernadette Lewis is supported at times through a woven screen of parallel threads, she leans out, is held, retrieved and allowed her independence.
There is visual variety in this work while retaining a coherence of choreographic language. Falls, rolls, leg extensions and fluid folding from the waist all happen in a seamless woven thread of movement. The choreography does seem to work to physicalise the weaving motif. This is a beautifully textured, dynamic and well-paced work as well as conveying a sense of being organic.
Identity presents two works that create a dialogue around its theme. The dancers were uniformly strong and the program showcased their diverse expressive capabilities. The almost 2 D flatness evoked in The Blur gave Remembered of Us extra dimensionality. The refusal and inability to make human connections in Anton's work renders the Rings work more intensely poignant. This is an enjoyable double-bill and I am sorry that I can't follow Tasdance home for their upcoming season.
- SUSAN BENDALL