Pedal.Peddle
House of Sand presents a new work by Eliza Sanders.
QL2 Theatre. Gorman House Arts Centre. April 24 and 25. 2015
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
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| Eliza Sanders in Pedal.Peddle Photo by Stephen A'Court |
Occasionally an artist emerges who possess the
thrill to surprise. Eliza Sanders is such an artist. I did not know what to
suspect as I entered the QL2 Studio at Gorman House Arts Centre. Eliza had
invited me to review her dance work, and although I stressed that I was not a
dance reviewer, she insisted that she wanted a theatre reviewer’s perspective
of a dance piece that she regarded as owing its inspiration to Theatre of the
Absurd that would not be judged in conventional manner.
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| Eliza Sanders. Photo by Lorna Sim |
From the moment she entered the
space, carrying a suitcase and entangled within a colourful display of
enveloping material, Sanders enticed instant curiosity. Contemporary dance is
the outward expression of the internal passion and the audience is invited to
engage in a private conversation with oneself. What unfolds is the mystery of
meaning and we are left to define its message.
And so, Sanders seduced me into
taking a journey with her from the surprising utterance of words as she crossed
herself during an itemized reminder of the things required for her impending
journey. “Tickets, passport, Tampon, charger” over and over again as her arms
jolted and jerked in the sign of the Holy Spirit. Here is the embarkation on Life’s
travels, the fears, the doubts, the rituals, the desperate, urgent pleas for acceptance
(I can sleep anywhere. I can sleep on the floor, as she writhes in anxious
supplication, and finally the unravelling of the baggage that leaves her half
naked, exposed and daubed with smears of black paint that mark her for the
vulnerable, the exposed and the isolated. And so I watch an artist, whose
originality, creative ingenuity and physical command of space entices and
mesmerizes. Here is not the aesthetic of dance or the tutored expression of
bodily movement, and yet it is the signature of dance that gives expression to
feeling. I feel for Sanders’ anxiety, her confusion and her rebellious
divestment of Life’s trials and tribulations. As she pedals through Life’s
challenges preparing for a journey, hanging out Life’s washing upon the line,
unravelling the clothes that define her and besmirching herself in defiance, I
am aware that here is an unique and compelling artist, unfettered by convention
and forcefully defining her art and her experience.
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| Pedal.Peddle. Photo by Stehen A'Court |
Of course, I may have interpreted
my own experience inaccurately in terms of Sanders’ conscious intentions. After
all, her 6 a.m. flight could be taking her on a very different journey. But
that doesn’t matter. I am moved. I am involved. I am provoked to think and to
feel and to wrap my own impressions about her art, as her body speaks the
language of movement.
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| Eliza Sanders in Pedal.Peddle. Photo by Lorna Sim |
It is all surprise. I did not
expect the witty snatches of dialogue. I did not expect the purity and seduction of her song and
the words of Edith Piaff or Laura Marling or Jordie Lane amongst others. I did
not expect the sudden touches of comedy as she transformed into a chicken, or
the drama of her being in the fluidity of her dance of disrobing.
I approached without expectation
and I left with a deeper appreciation of the power of the dancer to persuade
and surprise. Sanders defies expectation and excites with the originality of
her dance. Her work requires the commitment of an audience to engage with the
image, evoke the emotions and arouse the intellect. If this occurs, Sanders’
work will offer a new experience in the lexicon of dance. She emerges as a
refreshing new talent in contemporary Australian dance.
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Pedal.Peddle at QL2. Photo by Lorna Sim
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