Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Saturday 3rd October 2015
To call
Play a dance work is a massive understatement as it encompasses such a wide range of the Arts to create a sensational multi-disciplinary performance, in which even the people moving the set around are part of the piece. It begins with six musicians, each playing a diverse array of instruments, from koto, to hammer dulcimer, harps, drums, violin, percussion, piano, and more. A closer look reveals that two of them are the choreographers/dancers,
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Shantala Shivalingappa.
It was the late, great choreographer, Pina Bausch, who brought the two together, commissioning them to create a work for her. She passed away before it was performed, but work continued and the fruits of that commission flourished, as we discovered.
Having mentioned that everybody plays a range of musical instruments and, as it happens, also sings, this is a good point at which to talk about the music. Having music played live for a dance work is a rarity, with electronic music more common nowadays and this immediately grabbed the attention and approval of the audience. The choice of music was, naturally, influenced by the many instruments available and also by the performers and their backgrounds and interests. Some was written by members of the ensemble, especially for this production.
Patrizia Bovi plays harps and sings beautifully in Italian and Spanish, Gabriele Miracle plays the dulcimer, piano and percussion, Olga Wojciechowska plays violin, and Tsubasa Hori plays koto, drums, piano, and percussion. Coming from all over the world, from Japan, through Spain to Poland, and adding Shantala Shivalingappa's influences, India and Paris, and
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Belgian and Moroccan influences, the music screams out to be recorded and a CD made available, along with a DVD of the entire work. Mediæval songs, a lullaby, traditional songs from India, flamenco, gypsy music, Japanese song, it is all in this incredible production, the different musical styles and languages bringing the same degree of variety as we see in the dances.
The two dancers come forward to a table and chairs mounted on a truck, a square plinth on wheels, and they begin to explore all of the meanings of the word 'play', starting with a very high speed game of chess, that is captured by closed circuit television from directly above the board, and projected onto the rear wall.
Each of the four musicians is also on a truck and two more company members move these around at intervals, not only changing the layout of the stage, but reassembling them in various patterns with the movement as they are wheeled around adding a dance of their own. Even the lighting seems to be performing its own dance, boy merely providing illumination.
At one stage, Gabriele Miracle and Tsubasa Hori join the dancers at a table, each sitting at a corner, and they begin a game of slapping the table with the front or the back of the hand, leading and copying one another in creating a series of complex rhythmic patterns, again projected so that we can watch their hands moving, creating visual patterns.
Shantala Shivalingappa was trained in the traditional southern Indian Kuchipudi style of dance, while
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui comes from the contemporary dance world. Merging, contrasting, sharing, and juxtaposing their styles at different times throughout the piece was one more level of fascination. You have never seen a performance anything like this.
Both dancers also sing at times during the work and, what many found fascinating, was when Shantala Shivalingappa came to the front of the stage and sat on the apron to deliver an extended monologue, a technical treatise on brain training, while
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui stood behind her, back to the audience, his hands and fingers creating patterns of movement on and around his head, again projected for us to see all of the detail.
There is plenty of humour in this work, with the two wearing grotesque masks in one section, and working with life-size puppets in another. Another section finds them blindfolded.
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui surprised on young lady in the audience by coming down from the stage and asking her to dance with him, before abandoning jher and returning to his stage partner.
All of this is only a fraction of the work, and it tells almost nothing of the intricacy and engagement of the piece. Suffice to say that my guest declared this to be the best performance that she had seen at the Festival and, in fact, that she had ever seen, with so much of it reflecting her own life. That is quite a commendation, and one reflected by others who have seen this and cannot stop talking about it.
The OzAsia Festival this year brought so many brilliantly sparkling gems to Adelaide, and yet this production still managed to stand out. That was no easy feat. If it ever comes to Adelaide again, be sure to get tickets. Sadly, it is too late to see it this time around, as this was the final performance.
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