The dance that lands on its feet
theatre
There is a school of thought among some dance experts that choreography that pleases, and is intended to please, is vulgar, and definitely not good art.
In this school of thought the process of choreography should be just that: a continuing debate between the artist and the form, never completed, and definitely not intended ever to see the light of day before an audience.
It is a bleak, unproductive and joyless school of thought, and ultimately denies the definition of dance as a performance art.
Fortunately, we have some choreographers in Ireland who are prepared to vulgarise themselves to great effect, and attain international acclaim while doing it. And heading the list is David Bolger, artistic director of CoisCeim. His latest piece is an exploration and updating of L'Apres-Midi d'un Faune.
The dancers tell the story in words and movement of the sensational first performance by Nijinsky of his own work, and the shock it caused in Paris in 1912. They go on to perform Bolger's interpretation of the Debussy score, with three fauns and three nymphs, presumably something to do with modern equality of the sexes, rather than having a single faun getting his rocks off at the sight of two floating and flirting nymphs. (I jest!)
The Bolger choreography is fluid and demanding, with a two fierce pas seules, and a final exquisite pas de deux. Modernisation is also provided by a sequence in which the protagonists free themselves from the bonds of their body limitations to the throbbing beat of Queen's I Want to Break Free.
This is CoisCeim's 15th anniversary production, and Faun is preceded by Muirne Bloomer's As You Are, described in the programme as allowing you to release your inner child. Predicated on the iconic image of Homo Sapiens as a geometric entity (marvellously danced by Robert Jackson) it goes through a number of sequences of the dancers exploring each other in the kind of childish curiosity that precludes wonder as they accept what they find. Games are invented and abandoned as the dancers, sometimes mischievously, sometimes petulantly, find new pre-occupations.
But there is a dark note: war games are there, as inevitable as the maturing and developing process, and the piece could be summed up with a sub-title of 'Homo sapiens and what it does to itself'. It opens significantly to the music of the Allegri Miserere and goes through the War of the Worlds. Both pieces have additional, splendid music by Ivan Birthistle and Vincent Doherty.
James Hosty and Eddie Kay join Jackson in the male roles, and the women's roles are danced by Megan Kennedy, Emma O'Kane and Lisa McLoughlin, all splendidly (especially McLoughlin in the Faun pas de deux).
The production values are superb, with set by Maree Kearns, lighting by Lucy Carter, and costumes by Paul Shriek. The show will run at the Project Theatre in Dublin until January 23, and then tours to Galway, Thurles, Waterford, Cork, Longford, Dun Laoghaire, Tallaght and Wexford.
- Emer O'Kelly
Originally published in
