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Beauty and the brut
Dark electro beats mixed with seedy narrative was the premise for the first
section of the trio of dances. The narrator told of an encounter on a beach
with a freaky American guy who was trying to seduce her. The sections of the
narrative are cut up and repeated to fit with the beats of the music. The
dead pan sound of the woman’s voice mixed with her naive and slightly dense
sounding way of speaking made the music and narrative feel slightly ominous
and sordid.
The dancers in their castaway beachwear inspired
costumes moved fantastically in the lighting that cast a soft bronze glow
over their gracefully offbeat and quirky movements.
The mixing or editing if you like of the girls
story and the music was interestingly replied to by the movements of the
dancers there was an element of a gritty hip hop style urban attitude. Mix
those with effortless graceful movements and the contrast is immense and
it’s quite awkward looking at points, which adds to the atmosphere already
created by the strange story the girl, is telling.
These movements become more intense and
animalistic as the goal the American is trying to score becomes more
imminent and apparent that it is going to happen.
And although the woman appears to enjoy what a stranger is doing to her the
story is abruptly cut off thus leaving the ending to the imagination. For me
the whole piece was thrilling throughout. and the chase of the girl by the
boy is apparent but also sometimes blurred and it becomes unclear who is
chasing who as the story and meaning become as mixed up with the beats and
sounds of Fisherspooner.
More couples join the boy and girl on stage to
complete the piece to create a series of overlapping duets and trios. The
narration continues throughout the piece, often repeating in both French and
English the dialogue between the two. Fischerspooner’s minimalist,
electronic sound was soft, and meant as background noise rather than as a
rhythm for Petronio’s kinetic, flowing movement.
Bloom
The use of the voice of Rufus Wainright in this piece was wonderful, his
voice raw and strong, distinctly his. And although I was sure his voice may
take over in terms of where my attention was at, it didn’t, well at least
not all the time.
The acapella style with the choir sounded lovely and the dancers moved
fluidly and fluttered all about the stage in rapid movements reminiscent of
leaves falling to the ground in autumn or feathers being ruffled and flying
in all directions.
During the piece as the tempo quickens, the dancers, dressed in pale blue,
dart and spin and leap in mesmerizing patterns around the stage. A recurring
image is of a dancer laying down, center stage, developing and extending her
legs gradually toward the ceiling, as if she were blooming. The piece itself
blossoms and becomes an ecstatic, heavenly tour de force.
This is the story of a girl in a
world
It promised to be great, with the voice of Anthony from Anthony and the
Johnston’s featuring! I was wondering what magic they would be able to
conjure up by using Anthony’s heavenly voice to inspire a dance. Amazing,
but no instead we got the album played back to us and the dancers
floundering around trying to gel the music and their movements together,
which was especially difficult to make look credible with the live version
of one song featuring Lou Reed, especially when the audience in the song
start clapping. The dancers look completely lost, in trios and solos, the
dancers moved lyrically and sensually, but lacked emotion.
The whole piece, which was split up into five sections, was very
disconnected. However over all I felt this last piece was more about the
music and not the dancers and that the dancers just looked surplus to
requirements and quite detached from what was happening
I also thought that the fact that the songs were just played from an album
that I felt it could have been any album and it would probably have had the
same effect. Even something pop or commercial and in a way it could have
made it more controversial than just choosing Anthony with his gender
confusion issues. Which I understand fits in with the way that Petronio
works but I find it just a little to predictable. |
