http://www.artshub.com.au/au/news-article/reviews/performing-arts/return-to-sender-186590?sc=1
Under the umbrella title of Return to Sender, Carriageworks presented seven short dance works from Australian and international artists. In an extremely varied program, some of the pieces were challenging, confronting and exciting; others just didn't quite work.
The pieces examine the influence of international creative relationships upon the practice of Australian dance artists. Curators Paul Gazzola and Jeff Khan invited eight Australian dance makers to develop new works that recreate the choreography, score or essence of an international peer's work. The works we saw range from reconstructed solos, performed instructions and collaborative texts. We gained an insight into the creative collaborations that influence Australian artists’ work but which take place overseas and are often invisible to the audience because of expense, geography and distance.
The first work, utilising the current trend for international collaboration via Skype and video, was Nadia Cusimano’s The Runner. Linked to her collaborator Christiane Hommelsheim via a live Skype feed from Gemany, together they recreate a solo performance choreographed by Deborah Hay that both artists have previously performed. It was an invitation to experiment. The choreography sometimes had a classical Indian dance feel, especially in the arms, the overall sense of fluid angularity and the sculptural poses. There were also possibly allusions to Twyla Tharp's work. Fascinating.
Double Act, for me, was disappointing – a superficial, cynical analysis of theatre, performance and dance writing. A fictional dialogue between Jane McKernan and her long time mentor and collaborator Wendy Huston, the night I saw it it was performed by Elizabeth Ryan and Emma Saunders. As a humourous analysis of performance and dance it didn't really go anywhere. The duo just stood in front of large microphones and talked with ironic comments/phrases flashed on a screen behind them.
Atlanta Eke's Name to be Given by the Spectator is an extremely brave, very energetic piece. Eke reworks Emma Kim Hagdahl's work of the same name into a condensed ten-minute solo, exploring a multiplicity of references that examine the nude moving body. Ballet enchainments are mixed with ordinary everyday movements; we see a myriad ways of walking backwards and forwards in straight line. Here again the trend of linking and interacting with the audience was included as Eke invited people to interact via their mobile/MP3 player or similar. It was an extremely revealing, intimate and challenging piece – one of the highlights of the evening.
Next was Tony Yap and Yumi Umiumare’s strong, powerful and incredibly moving Zero Zero. Butoh influenced, it has been developed from Yap and Umiumare’s interest in striving for a 'zero state' of total emptiness. It's also influenced by their mutual interest in the shamanistic dance practices, ritual environments and ancient cultural heritage of their homelands: Japan and Malaysia. It seems to be divided into three sections – a mesmerising, sculptural solo for Yap, who is strong and powerful in it, but also off balance and sometimes like a darting bird; a solo for Umiumare, where she is like a hooked fish on a line, one minute happy, the next dissolving into tears; and a duet for them both. Strange, angular and puppet-like, they never touch. Amazing.
After interval came Alison Currie's Solo. Currie rethinks Pere Faura’s work of the same name, which she saw in New York six years ago. She attempts to recreate the work from memory (not notation), exploring its influence on her own dance practice. It’s interesting to see a woman recreate and access male choreography for a male body on a female form. There’s a range of dance styles, mostly angular, athletic and off balance. We see what the solo 'could have been' but wasn't. The final part sees Currie explores vulnerability (the audience's and hers, and yes there is other non-painful audience participation). It ended when she took her shoes off and left them on stage. An audience favourite, we wanted more.
Matthew Day’s Self Portrait was most disappointing, I’m afraid. Originally performed by Mathieu Gaffre in Amsterdam in 2010, it had a couple of fascinating visual ideas but didn't really go anywhere or do anything. Just standing there with a long wig covering your face and then revealing your beard and grimacing doesn't really add too much. There were lots of blackouts and loud music and a wonderful dramatic colourwash on the backcloth at one point. Was it meant to be an exploration of duality and sexuality?
The final work, Latai Taumoepeau’s Koumi Fonua was thrilling. Taumoepeau has worked with Tongan artist, academic and poet Hufanga Dr 'Okusitino Mahina to translate the Tongan Ta-Va (time-space) theory of reality into a visual and movement score, fusing the poetics and principles of Tongan cultural practice with Western contemporary dance. It was mesmerising, strong and powerful and had a rhythmic heartbeat or rain as a pulsating soundtrack. It begins with Taumoepeau doing lots of rippling, flowing-arm movements. Her arms are covered in oil. The set is a white box that Taumoepeau steps into and gets covered in the red paint – a sacrifice? A comment on the destruction of our environment? Enthralling.
Rating: 4 stars
Return To Sender
Curated by Paul Gazzola and Jeff Khan
Nadia Cusimano: The Runner
Jane Mckernan: Double Act
Atlanta Eke: Name to be Given by the Spectator
Tony Yap & Yumi Umiumare: Zero Zero
Alison Currie: Solo
Matthew Day: Self Portrait
Latai Taumeopeau: Kumi Fonua
Carriageworks
November 23–26
Below: Yumi Umiumare in EN TRANCE
The pieces examine the influence of international creative relationships upon the practice of Australian dance artists. Curators Paul Gazzola and Jeff Khan invited eight Australian dance makers to develop new works that recreate the choreography, score or essence of an international peer's work. The works we saw range from reconstructed solos, performed instructions and collaborative texts. We gained an insight into the creative collaborations that influence Australian artists’ work but which take place overseas and are often invisible to the audience because of expense, geography and distance.
The first work, utilising the current trend for international collaboration via Skype and video, was Nadia Cusimano’s The Runner. Linked to her collaborator Christiane Hommelsheim via a live Skype feed from Gemany, together they recreate a solo performance choreographed by Deborah Hay that both artists have previously performed. It was an invitation to experiment. The choreography sometimes had a classical Indian dance feel, especially in the arms, the overall sense of fluid angularity and the sculptural poses. There were also possibly allusions to Twyla Tharp's work. Fascinating.
Double Act, for me, was disappointing – a superficial, cynical analysis of theatre, performance and dance writing. A fictional dialogue between Jane McKernan and her long time mentor and collaborator Wendy Huston, the night I saw it it was performed by Elizabeth Ryan and Emma Saunders. As a humourous analysis of performance and dance it didn't really go anywhere. The duo just stood in front of large microphones and talked with ironic comments/phrases flashed on a screen behind them.
Atlanta Eke's Name to be Given by the Spectator is an extremely brave, very energetic piece. Eke reworks Emma Kim Hagdahl's work of the same name into a condensed ten-minute solo, exploring a multiplicity of references that examine the nude moving body. Ballet enchainments are mixed with ordinary everyday movements; we see a myriad ways of walking backwards and forwards in straight line. Here again the trend of linking and interacting with the audience was included as Eke invited people to interact via their mobile/MP3 player or similar. It was an extremely revealing, intimate and challenging piece – one of the highlights of the evening.
Next was Tony Yap and Yumi Umiumare’s strong, powerful and incredibly moving Zero Zero. Butoh influenced, it has been developed from Yap and Umiumare’s interest in striving for a 'zero state' of total emptiness. It's also influenced by their mutual interest in the shamanistic dance practices, ritual environments and ancient cultural heritage of their homelands: Japan and Malaysia. It seems to be divided into three sections – a mesmerising, sculptural solo for Yap, who is strong and powerful in it, but also off balance and sometimes like a darting bird; a solo for Umiumare, where she is like a hooked fish on a line, one minute happy, the next dissolving into tears; and a duet for them both. Strange, angular and puppet-like, they never touch. Amazing.
After interval came Alison Currie's Solo. Currie rethinks Pere Faura’s work of the same name, which she saw in New York six years ago. She attempts to recreate the work from memory (not notation), exploring its influence on her own dance practice. It’s interesting to see a woman recreate and access male choreography for a male body on a female form. There’s a range of dance styles, mostly angular, athletic and off balance. We see what the solo 'could have been' but wasn't. The final part sees Currie explores vulnerability (the audience's and hers, and yes there is other non-painful audience participation). It ended when she took her shoes off and left them on stage. An audience favourite, we wanted more.
Matthew Day’s Self Portrait was most disappointing, I’m afraid. Originally performed by Mathieu Gaffre in Amsterdam in 2010, it had a couple of fascinating visual ideas but didn't really go anywhere or do anything. Just standing there with a long wig covering your face and then revealing your beard and grimacing doesn't really add too much. There were lots of blackouts and loud music and a wonderful dramatic colourwash on the backcloth at one point. Was it meant to be an exploration of duality and sexuality?
The final work, Latai Taumoepeau’s Koumi Fonua was thrilling. Taumoepeau has worked with Tongan artist, academic and poet Hufanga Dr 'Okusitino Mahina to translate the Tongan Ta-Va (time-space) theory of reality into a visual and movement score, fusing the poetics and principles of Tongan cultural practice with Western contemporary dance. It was mesmerising, strong and powerful and had a rhythmic heartbeat or rain as a pulsating soundtrack. It begins with Taumoepeau doing lots of rippling, flowing-arm movements. Her arms are covered in oil. The set is a white box that Taumoepeau steps into and gets covered in the red paint – a sacrifice? A comment on the destruction of our environment? Enthralling.
Rating: 4 stars
Return To Sender
Curated by Paul Gazzola and Jeff Khan
Nadia Cusimano: The Runner
Jane Mckernan: Double Act
Atlanta Eke: Name to be Given by the Spectator
Tony Yap & Yumi Umiumare: Zero Zero
Alison Currie: Solo
Matthew Day: Self Portrait
Latai Taumeopeau: Kumi Fonua
Carriageworks
November 23–26
Below: Yumi Umiumare in EN TRANCE
No comments:
Post a Comment