Monumental
The Holy Body Tattoo with live
music by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Festival Theatre. Adelaide Festival Centre. A
co-production with the Adelaide Festival of Arts 2016., PUSH International
Performing Arts Association, Place des Arts, Montreal, Edinburgh International
Festival and BAM for the Next wave Festival. March 4-5. 2016
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
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| Choreographers Dana Gingras and Noam Gagnon (far left) and the dancers of The Holy Body Tattoo's Monumental Photo by Yannick Grandmont |
The flyer makes its tantalizing
claim: ”exhilarating contemporary dance that will leave its mark like a tattoo
on the soul.” Canadian contemporary dance troupe The Holy Body tattoo,
accompanied by the volcanic sound of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, contorts in
brittle spasms of angst and violent confrontation, exposing the essential animalism
of the human condition
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| Post Rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor Photo by Yannick Grandmont |
On the vast Festival Theatre
stage, the combined magnetism of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and the highly
disciplined, precise and athletic movements of super-hip dance company The Holy
Body Tattoo are played out in an evolving evolution of contemporary dance sequences. Narrow shafts
of light shine down upon the still forms upon shadowy plinths. A wave of
flashing movement punctuates the sound shattering percussion of the band. Hands
go to ears, unaware of the advice secreted at the entrance to the theatre that
earplugs would be available because of the excessive sound levels of the show.
Monumental is an overwhelming
assault on the sensations, as the figures on the plinth jerk suddenly, scratch
and contort in a gradual progression to syncopated rhythms. Feet tap out their
incessant beat and the figures are released from their plinths and eventually propelled
into violent struggle and confrontation. The projections announce the decline
of modern life, the fears, the distrust, the bleak and hopeless prophesies of
doom.
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| Monumental. Photo by Chris randle |
The dancers propel into a series
of frenetic movements, while wind farms whirl upon the large projection screen,
only to be displaced by the images of a fast-moving world that is gradually being
consumed by humanity’s destruction of the environment. The individual turns
against the tribe, struggling for survival and the Valley of Death runs rivers
of blood. Monumental offers a dire
warning to the world and the human becomes a powerless victim of an inevitable
fate.
Throughout the performance the
audience watches, riveted by the physical stamina and growing freneticism of
the dance. A solo artist whirls in dervish frenzy. Another hurls himself
rolling across the stage. A female dancer is violated by the aggressive male
and the dark elements of the human condition combine in every gesture and tightly
choreographed movement . The moments of
stillness heighten the curiosity and suspense, as the band behind builds the
foreboding mood with pounding percussion and strident electric sound. It is the oracle of a world on the edge of
destruction.
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| Monumental. Photo by Chris Randle |
Sculptural in its stillness and
vital in its bold athleticism, The Holy Body Tattoo constructs a powerful and
frightening reality through its contemporary dance, and I leave the theatre
with the music still echoing through my body and the images still swirling
about my brain. The quote on the flyer has lived up to its claim.