MULTI-LAYERED AND POWERFUL |
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) MTYLAND Choreography/Direction Claire O’Neil FOOTNOTE DANCE at Soundings - Te Papa, Wellington From 27 Feb 2010 to 1 Mar 2010 Reviewed by Lyne Pringle, 28 Feb 2010 |
That Footnote is included in the international festival with Claire O’Neill’s work Mtyland is cause for celebration. It has been a long journey of negotiation and faith. Why should it be this hard and this rare to see New Zealand artists in this context, particularly dance?
The Soundings Theatre offers a more intimate engagement with the work. Right from our entrance into the auditorium O’Neill challenges our conventional expectations with a pared down stage and pensive dancers on or moving into the space; the house lights are up, a radio station blares Sihad. We are part of the work, throughout the dance we are invited in, stared down, perused, and at one point told to leave.
O’Neill has always been an exciting mover herself and in this work she transfers that abandoned, dangerous, sensuous movement compulsion to the wonderful dancers in this feisty company. It is thrilling to see her particular brand of corporeal genius magnified six fold.
The performance space is often expectant, waiting for the bodies to inhabit it. Sometimes this emptiness is deeply resonant but at other times it feels impoverished, as it there is not enough burn in the previous moment to justify our wait for the next event. Tightening of the theatrical screws would alleviate this.
O’Neill demands much of the dancers: they must deliver text, sometimes whilst moving, sing and send out an unmistakable challenge to the audience. They are fantastic, totally committed to the whirlwind of dance, theatre, music and space. The work is edgier this time around, less funny; the multiple readings available are dense and cryptic as I search for meaning.
On first viewing one of the things that impresses is the sense that the performers are really wearing their own skins within the context of the ‘characters’ of the piece. The work invites them to fully inhabit fresh uncolonised bodies and consequently we are invited into their struggles, their concerns, their need for contact with another, their wrestles with fullness and emptiness. As the stridency of first night nerves settle the performers will again find this confidence.
There are many stand-out moments due to the beautiful logic in O’Neill’s movement phrases. In an assured unison section early on, the dancers hold an unusual focus which draws their heads skyward as they navigate a liquid crawling sequence. Limbs fold and unfold as their bodies shift their relationship to gravity with ease. It is refreshingly unique choreography.
An extended sequence is full of persistent jumps and angular extensions building to a desperate sense of futility; bodies twitch as if possessed and physical limits are pushed, battered and cajoled, leaving the dancers on the edge of frenzied despair. Sometimes there is nothing left to do but sing, voices providing the pathway to continue on in this intense investigation of emptiness.
A quartet where Sarah Knox is held aloft whilst reciting sayings is beautifully realised as the text and movement fuse.
Once again I appreciate O’Neill’s ability to turn things on their head to create strange juxtapositions: a particular emotion can suddenly switch; anguish to joy, confidence to paranoia. In these moments I’m on the thrilling crest of a theatrical wave as bodies relish the challenges in an orgy of flungness!
A dark humour pervades the piece. At one point Francis Christeller, who is highly convincing as a dangerous nerd, is held aloft talking about weapons – fingernails or flamethrowers – then the dancers sing about seasons coming and going as they all try to avert a hostage crisis, by placating and diffusing.
Jeremy Poi is an excellent natural comic and a dynamo onstage as he moves from gleeful ownership of the space to paranoid manipulator.
Jessie Wikiriwhi, who has returned for this season, is an assured presence throughout the piece as his performance reaches a new level of maturity.
Anita Hunziker falls with abandon into the space, her tight compact and amazing body relishing the choreographic and theatrical challenges.
Sarah Knox holds nothing back as she expresses deep and tender moments – her duet with Poi is exquisite.
And newcomer Lucy Marinkovich is a welcome addition to the company with her lyrical presence.
It is wonderful to see Footnote Dance Company take their rightful place in this international festival and I appreciate the opportunity to revisit this multi-layered and powerful work and hope that it will live on to grow and develop.
Please see my previous review for an in depth analysis of the structures of the work and the production elements.
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See also reviews by:
Jennifer Shennan (The Dominion Post);
Mark Amery (New Zealand Herald (online only));