Dance Territories, Dancehouse, Friday 17th October 2014

Dance Territories, Dancehouse, Friday 17th October 2014

"Dance Territories" was presented at the Dancehouse in North Carlton as part of the Melbourne Festival.

For those new to my blog, I write about the holistic experience of attending the theatre and will not retell the story of any show.

In the Melbourne Festival brochure on page 55, Program Two is called "Rituals for Now" but it is not written anywhere in the actual programme.  It is also advertised to run for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Also why don't they use the Melbourne Festival logo on their programme?

We waited in the downstairs foyer until we were admitted into the upstairs studio/theatre at about 8.05pm.  The performance began at about 8.08pm.  There was no announcement prior to the performance.  Even in the grungiest theatres in Off Broadway they make a pre-show announcement and also talk about the exits in case of an emergency.  I suggest that Dancehouse follows this example.

Upon entry to the theatre the usual professional verification and tearing off the ticket stubs did not occur.  It was like the entry to a poor student theatre production.  It did not impress me.  I like to see confident ushers verifying admittance for security purposes.

At interval I had to ask which dance piece was performed first as there was not a running order on display nor an announcement.  Interestingly I was told two different versions of the running order.  I did not know who to believe until I verified by the programme that the first piece had two people in and had to be Eleonore Didier's "Solides, Lisboa."

The above will give context to not providing a conducive entrée to someone's work and the frame of mind that the Dancehouse atmosphere established.

The stage was a blank floor cloth.  Silence.  A woman steps from a front row seat and begins to crawl on the floor. This is Eleonore Didier who is a fine contemporary dancer with a solid technique. She wears a skirt and blouse. She crawls forward, toward upstage then stage left and in an arc.  There are prolonged periods of stillness when she is on all fours (cat pose.)  The stillness has a slight shake or energy, as we need energy to be still.

I can hear Anne Wooliams cringing as she would have wanted to correct her sickled right foot and extended the line when Eleonore was on all fours position.  I too felt this, as it took away from her movements.  The technique of crawling also changed slightly.  At times it bothered me as the big toe sometimes lead and other times was tucked under. It is amazing what the silence did - highlight aspects of the crawling. 

Again we were introduced to long passages of silences and pauses.  Time for Eleonore to establish a contract with the audience of where this piece may be going.

There was a quicker sequence to get her standing. She took one confident step that seemed to jar.  I wanted a hesitant or tentative step here as it would have made more sense.  This was to come about thirty seconds later and played with our sense of time.

Through the repetitions and pauses and silences I was fascinated with her command of the audience.  It was a simple routine and went for at least 40 minutes.  I did not get bored and was intrigued with her stillness and the mundane.

She strips and bares her body.  Her clothes on the floor.  I was more intrigued by what looked like a bruise on her upper right scapula.  She bared the perils of being a dancer. She brings in a chair and places her skirt then blouse over the top.  Yes a ritual or a routine for some to be neat and tidy while others throw their clothes around.  It gets me thinking that I am glad that I do not throw my clothes on the floor like some people.

It is like a meditation.

She brings on a table with a young man, Jonathon Sinatra who stands by the table.  Eleonore brings on another chair and places it behind Jonathon.  She moves Jonathon to sit him in the chair.  It looks awkward and staged as the movements looked unnatural.  Why not just push him into the chair or place him into the chair as it was set.  It lost flow here and jarred. 

Jonathon sits and does not move.  He is so still and so disciplined in this pursuit.

Later Eleonore does a headstand on the chair and sprawls across the table.  Later she sits on Jonathon's lap and then straddles facing him.  Pauses of course in between.  Are these example of the rituals of seduction or intimacy?  These could be ordinary moments to savour and relish and remember.  These in turn could be moments of an extra-ordinary nature.  They could also be forgettable.

Eleonore is wrapped around Jonathon's torso and he carries her to stage left and stands.  Of course the pause and the silence to accentuate the moment.  She slowly slides down his body.  This was an impressive feat by both dancers displaying trust, strength and control.  He did not flinch and was masterly in his minimalist role.

Eleonore's work is not forgettable.  Reflective and powerful movement in her stillness.

They made an announcement that there was interval for 20 minutes.  Though they could have told us that the second piece was in the downstairs theatre.

Linda Luke's piece followed in the downstairs theatre.  "Still Point Turning" is a bizarre construction that went on for way too long.  Ironically, with so much movement it tired.

Two objects appear.  They could be legs.  Or are they faces?  A body rolls out and the two shoes (like Japanese sandals with faces on their soles.)  These faces seem to speak.  Could they be the dials to the clock?

We see Linda progress to standing and hobbling around in these shoes. It was skilful to be able to move in the shoes.  They are cut off her feet with a pair of scissors.

There is a pendulum hanging down stage right.  Linda Luke moved around the pendulum sometimes tiny second steps, others could be minutes or hours.  Maybe she has studied the work of Ted Shawn and Ruth Saint Dennis or has studied Delcroze Eurhythmics.

She pulled the pendulum and was suspended in time. This was one of the most powerful images.  The pendulum was released and began to swing.  I was fascinated with the number of times the pendulum would swing.  I began to count as the piece became quite dreary.  I watched the piece as I counted up to 920 swings. It was quite hypnotic to be put into a trance like state.

There was some lovely transitions of using the costume to create images of flowers blooming.  Well there were flowers blooming on the screen behind.  The costume by Justine Shih Pearson was beautiful in its ability to be transformed into various shapes and create different moods.

As my partner says if you have to read a programme in detail to be able to make sense of a piece then it does not necessarily work.

The first piece was the stronger of the two.

But two hours for an advertised programme of one hour forty minutes is not good enough.  Especially when the theme was about TIME!

This production overall gets a 4/10.