A Quiet Evening of Dance, William Forsythe, State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Thursday October 18th 2018
"A Quiet Evening of Dance" by William Forsythe was presented at the State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne, for the Melbourne International Arts Festival on Thursday October 18th 2018
I have seen examples of William Forsythe's work "Eidos: Telos" for the Frankfurt Ballet at the 2001 Melbourne International Arts Festival, and "In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated" by The Australian Ballet, and other works.
"A Quiet Evening of Dance" is a challenging work for non dancers. Thankfully, I had read a lot of articles prior to seeing the show. For those who did not read the programme prior to watching the show were a bit confused for the first act. I had a gentleman come up to me at interval and asked what I thought. I said it was basically the history of dance through time and I recommended that he read the programme and a few articles online. I also said to him "I felt that an introductory talk for about ten minutes with a few demonstrations would have made it more accessible for the audience." He agreed.
Do not get me wrong - I loved the show. It was a bit didactic at times but was playing with our heads as dance history was being developed through the ages.
At times some of the moves looked as if the dancers were in a dance studio and using their hands as if marking the choreography to save their bodies. There was the duality of this plus the deconstruction of movement. Then there was the reinvention of using other parts of the body in place of the original body part. When the first twist of the spine occurred I was taken aback with surprise and delight. When the first saute occurred I had the same reaction. These reactions to the first plie, step, turn, releve, bourrees etc made me appreciate the journey that dance have come on.
"Prologue" began the first act and paid homage to the court dances of Louis XIV. There was an elegance and ritual. It made me appreciate the dance history and historical dance classes with Margaret Mullins. Thankfully, I was exposed to the codification of these historical dances by Raoul Feuillet. It was as if the drawings were being demonstrated on the stage.
The first clap by one of the dancers created a startled surprise. We were now being introduced to both music and time as the claps increased.
The crossing of the knees with hands had elements of the vaudeville knee and hand crossing trick. The crossing of the arms over the knees later developed into the a slapping sequence that paid homage to the German Schuhplatter knee dance.
We were even exposed to the different ballroom styles of dance in a stylised way.
Later in Act Two, Christopher Roman used juggling with his lower arms upstage. I have seen the photo of the original drawing and the name escapes me of the title. The audience laughed in recognition of this famous drawing as Christopher Roman pas de bourree'd across the back of the stage whilst juggling his lower arms. This action immediately drew us to the origin of this step.
William Forsythe is genius as he has created his version of Darwinism or evolution of movement for the stage. We were witnessing the birth of new moves such as the arabesque or the tour en l'air.
The final diagonal of six dancers created a pathway for Rauf "Rubberlegs" Yasit who wove his way through the dancers. His moves were a modern version of the classical solo en diagonale. A bold statement shone through with - this is the future of dance - evolve or tradition will die.
I would love to hear William Forsythe talk about "A Quiet Evening of Dance". In fact I would love to interview him and have a discussion as I am in awe of his work. I would love to see more of his works.
"A Quiet Evening of Dance" obtained an 8.5/10.
