Dance
Dance Umbrella (Queen Elizabeth Hall)
Dramatic tension
thannandrea Poem
The most striking aspect of Wind is, in my opinion, the overpowering tension that develops gradually and subtly within a few minutes of the start of the piece. Beyond the conceptual content of the work and the visual metaphors through which this is expressed, such tension derives mainly from the use of the body which transcends a display of physical ability alone. In other words, the emotion which informs the work and provokes, in one way or another, an individual response from each viewer comes from the chosen movement vocabulary.
Mesmerising for some, exasperating for others, the actions of the two interpreters/ choreographers, Eiko and Koma, reveal a unique interaction between mind and body. The slow pacing with which they pass from one corner to the other of the performing space — a framed, blue rectangle, covered with feathery/snowy material — the mini- mal, almost imperceptible movements and the long-held poses all vibrate and resonate with that philosophical concentration. This is particularly evident in a long, climactic 'naked' duet, where the two performers manage to achieve what seems to us West- ern mortals physically unattainable in terms of gravity, balance and stance. Although a comparison with well-known Eastern disciplines such as Zen is inevitable, in this particular context the divine art of self-control is only the means to an end: a non-self-indulgent, highly expressive theatrical idiom.
But such expressiveness does not auto- matically guarantee a universally shared understanding of what Hind is about. The subjective nature of the inner drama calls for different interpretations. Some might see in the work the umpteenth dramatisa- tion of the horror of the nuclear bomb and its still daunting memory, while others might find the piece a well-structured, multi-layered metaphor for different politi- cal, social and cultural statements. I do not think, though, that looking for a specific meaning in the performance is a vital pre- requisite to appreciating it. Similarly, I was not excessively bothered, as some were, by the alleged clashing of the stylised sets and musical accompaniment with the intense physical imagery described above. On the contrary, I found that there was hardly any conflict, and that both sets and music naturally complemented the performers, creating an ideal background that never distracted from the essence of the work.
Apart from the dramatic tension, anoth- er aspect of Wind prompted some intrigu- ing considerations. Although Eiko and Koma present themselves as independent from any classified genres of theatre dance, there is little doubt that the structural com- ponents of their works — as well as their choreographic formulae — belong to a well-established tradition. It is more than 20 years since forms of non-verbal theatre derived from Eastern cultures, and in par- ticular from Japan, have been assimilated in that huge cauldron of performing genres that is the Western contemporary theatre dance.
It is therefore more than 20 years since artists such as Kazuo Ohno or members of various Butoh-based groups have dealt with principles which share the same roots and which, in spite of diverse approaches, have remained unaltered. But unlike most Western choreographic canons which are in constant need of renewal, those princi- ples seem to possess a timeless quality that, in turn, allows myriad different — and therefore new — approaches. Whatever one might think of that art — and I cannot forget some of the rather blinkered com- ments I overheard at the end of the perfor- mance — it cannot be denied that the formula shared by Eiko and Oma, Ohno and the Butoh is much stronger than any of the ephemeral Western choreographic trends of today.
This year's Dance Umbrella season, one of the richest and most interesting I have seen in the last ten years, has provided enough tangible evidence of this phe- nomenon.
Only two days after the performance of Wind, the American Doug Elkins Dance Company performed in the Queen Eliza- beth Hall. Elkins, too, focuses on an intense use of physicality in his creations, although in a more flashily overt, almost obsessive way, as revealed by the solo with which he opened the programme. It's a pity that his creative canons are, in my opinion, a stale regurgitation of the ideas that informed American modern and, to a cer- tain extent, post-modern dance in the Six- ties and in the early Seventies. As such, they need desperately a radical rethinking. After all, gone are the days when the Mur- ray Louis aesthetic — with which Elkins's art has far too many points in common — caused a sensation. Yet the same young, typical BA dance students who had expressed so blatantly their reservations about Wind were there raving and cheering every single evolution. Generation gap or cultural ethnocentricism?
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