Connecting all the senses
Deirdre Tarrant
Rise, Java Dance Company, Stab season at Bats Theatre, October 30, Reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant.
FORCED gasping from hanging bodies and a stream of flour floating, falling, cascading from the ceiling involve us as five dancers start their journey and response to making bread. Quotes from authors and religious sources set the space for the ritual that is humanity providing for life.
Created and choreographed by Sacha Copland, here was a heady ambition and a concept with potential for both depth and range of interpretation. The actual making of the bread was fascinating and the joy of Alana Sargent as she revelled in the flour-angels and fine flying flour dust wonderful to watch. The rather laborious and gloriously messy process was punctuated with a burst of folk movements. The steps of eastern European kolos and the competitive element of the dance rituals of survival were strongly referenced in the movement. The ingredients symbolic and yet very visceral with an almost mud wrestling element to what was a couple dealing with the slip/slide of their own relationship.
Natalie Hona had a sense of wonderment throughout and Brian Grannan intrigued with his almost butoh-esque stillness and seriousness as he dealt always with the minutiae of the processes. Will Barling and Anne Brashier added substance and a temporal sense to the process.
There was much made of needing and kneading, both as necessities and pleasures in life. The idea is great but the actual movement material not very inventive or coherent and editing is required to sustain the structural appeal of the actual bread making in terms of movement.
The hot bread at the end was inspired and a sort of slap dance as the work concluded had elements of movement satisfaction as the bread was stacked with punctuated precision. It could have been fun and it could have been time to consider the ingredients and processes of our lives? I wanted the vocabulary to be more organic and to reflect the purpose and process in a more considered way but, that said, the energy was uplifting and the performers literally threw themselves into making the work ‘rise’.
The original music by Thomas Press was effective and design by Meg Rollandi worked very well indeed. The final image of stacked rolls up the wall and the smell of hot delicious bread being given to us to eat was strong and a celebratory connecting of all senses. A great start to the STAB season.
FORCED gasping from hanging bodies and a stream of flour floating, falling, cascading from the ceiling involve us as five dancers start their journey and response to making bread. Quotes from authors and religious sources set the space for the ritual that is humanity providing for life.
Created and choreographed by Sacha Copland, here was a heady ambition and a concept with potential for both depth and range of interpretation. The actual making of the bread was fascinating and the joy of Alana Sargent as she revelled in the flour-angels and fine flying flour dust wonderful to watch. The rather laborious and gloriously messy process was punctuated with a burst of folk movements. The steps of eastern European kolos and the competitive element of the dance rituals of survival were strongly referenced in the movement. The ingredients symbolic and yet very visceral with an almost mud wrestling element to what was a couple dealing with the slip/slide of their own relationship.
Natalie Hona had a sense of wonderment throughout and Brian Grannan intrigued with his almost butoh-esque stillness and seriousness as he dealt always with the minutiae of the processes. Will Barling and Anne Brashier added substance and a temporal sense to the process.
There was much made of needing and kneading, both as necessities and pleasures in life. The idea is great but the actual movement material not very inventive or coherent and editing is required to sustain the structural appeal of the actual bread making in terms of movement.
The hot bread at the end was inspired and a sort of slap dance as the work concluded had elements of movement satisfaction as the bread was stacked with punctuated precision. It could have been fun and it could have been time to consider the ingredients and processes of our lives? I wanted the vocabulary to be more organic and to reflect the purpose and process in a more considered way but, that said, the energy was uplifting and the performers literally threw themselves into making the work ‘rise’.
The original music by Thomas Press was effective and design by Meg Rollandi worked very well indeed. The final image of stacked rolls up the wall and the smell of hot delicious bread being given to us to eat was strong and a celebratory connecting of all senses. A great start to the STAB season.
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