Torque Show with Michelle Ryan and Lavender Vs Rose: Intimacy –
Space Theatre, Adelaide, 28 October -
Down here in the ‘Athens of the South’ we’re calling it Michelle Ryan month. In the space of just over a month, Ryan has been the subject of Meryl Tankard’s documentary, Michelle’s Story, shown in the Adelaide Film Festival, starred in a show with Torque Show, Intimacy, and is also directing a new work for Restless Dance Theatre, Touched. But despite Ryan being the common denominator, these works are all very different. Tankard’s documentary traces Ryan’s journey from professional dancer through the devastating diagnosis of multiple sclerosis that has made her wheelchair dependent, ending with her reemergence as artistic director of Adelaide’s Restless Dance Theatre. As one might expect, Tankard, who worked with Ryan for ten years, has made a film that is not only visually exquisite but also searingly moving. It will be shown on ABC TV sometime in the near future, and contains some wonderful archival footage of Ryan dancing in Tankard’s works for Australian Dance Theatre.
Intimacy, on the other hand, is less about Ryan personally and more about the subject of intimacy both in relation to disability and more generally. Made in conjunction with Torque Show (Ingrid Weisfelt, Vincent Crowley and Ross Ganf), and musical duo Lavender Vs Rose (Emma Bathgate and Simon Eszeky), it won the 2015 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance. More dance theatre than pure dance, it contains a series of vignettes exploring our competing needs for, and fear of, closeness.
Ryan and Crowley play themselves, ‘Michelle’ and ‘Vince’, whose encounter in a bar segues into a relationship. The traverse seating situates the audience on either side of this encounter. Gloriously bedecked in a sequined floor-length dress split to the thigh, Emma Bathgate’s over the top delivery of jazz standards, accompanied beautifully by Simon Eszeky on guitar, sends up all the tropes of this nascent romance. The issue of disability is never directly referred to; instead, Michelle’s anxieties are conveyed through her recounts of surreal dreams of bodily dismemberment. The difficulties of negotiating her disability-induced dependency on others become apparent as she conscripts audience members to help her get ready for a big date with Vince. When finally attired in her blue spangled dress, she and Vince share a tender duet, he manipulating her wasted legs and swirling her in his powerful arms like a rag doll. John Ford’s subdued lighting contributes powerfully to the mood here and throughout the work.
But her growing attachment to, and dependence on, ‘Vince’ is shattered when he asks for more space whilst they are on a camping trip. Crowley is hilarious as a typical commitment-phobe, seeking encounters with audience members that he quickly backs out of, spouting clichés all the while. Ryan’s closing solo, seated alone on a bench clad only in her underwear, shows that despite her wasted legs, her upper body remains powerfully expressive. Her enfolding, caressing arm movements give voice to her anguish, but also express a resilient sense of self.
Intimacy is a funny, thought-provoking and touching work, sensitively directed by Ingrid Weisfelt, that comments wryly on the need for connection that we all share, but so often fall short of.
- Maggie Tonkin