Choreographer: Sara Brodie, assisted by Ross McCormack
Set and Costume design: Mark
Macintyre
Lighting and Audio Visual design:
Paul Lim
Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse,
Monday, 15th June , 2015
Reviewed by Bill Stephens.
Following
closely on the recent earthquakes in Nepal, this haunting collaboration between
the Leshan Dance Company of South China, and New Zealand choreographer, Sara
Brodie, is a deeply moving response to two other horrific earthquakes.
Leshan is
approximately 120 kilometres from the city of Chengdu in the province of
Sichuan, which in 2008 was struck by a devastating earthquake. More than half
the dancers appearing in “Fault Lines” have lost either friends or family in
this earthquake which claimed the lives of more than 70,000 of their
countrymen.
Two years later, Christchurch suffered a similar disaster in which choreographer,
Sara Brodie, found herself an unwilling participant. Although the loss of life in Christchurch was
nowhere near as overwhelming, the feelings and emotions were no different.
Premiered at
the Melbourne Arts Festival in 2012, “Fault Lines” has since been performed in
China, Montreal and New Zealand. Canberra was fortunate to get the opportunity
to experience this production during this current Australian tour.
More dance
theatre than pure contemporary dance,”Fault Lines” is an elegiac work which
wisely concentrates on the human and emotional responses rather than attempting
to recreate the actual events. Although conceived as an ensemble piece, the
work provides plenty of opportunities for Leshan’s attractive, young dancers to
display their individual artistry and impeccable contemporary dance training.
Mark
Macintyre has designed an appropriately sombre black draped setting, which features
a cyclorama on to which is projected images detailing sobering statistics about
earthquakes which have occurred in the astonishing number of cities around the
world which have been built on fault lines. This setting provides an excellent
environment for a series of compelling abstract set pieces which strongly evoke
the shared earthquake experiences of the dancers, who are costumed in a variety
of attractive individual, contemporary fashions, rendered in soft muted greys.
Memorable
among them were the abstract representation of a bustling city where workers go
about their business blissfully engaged with their cell-phones rather than with
those surrounding them; the uneasy feeling of foreboding; the plight of a group
warily edging feet-first towards rescue; the disorientated party girl hobbling
on her single high heel; the crowd being held back by tapes; others using the
light from their cell-phones to find their way towards rescue.
A hauntingly
beautiful creation, “Fault Lines” succeeds beautifully as a dance work, and
as a compelling piece of theatre, in capturing the often contradictory way in
which humans cope with events outside their control.