sarma

Today’s penultimate article on the 12th Cannes Dance Festival is dedicated to three companies. George Appaix and his group La Liseuse presented “Kouatuor”, an explanatory proposal of the origins of the alphabet, script and language. Seeking first principles, he defended the relationship between actions and body postures ad abstractio to the point of a literally “grammatical” representation. However, we found that the demonstration set in motion of a generalised equation between the alphabet and the ideograms and the prehistoric images found in caves, was repetitive and bland. The reduction of the theoretical position regarding the birth of the languages from a common bodily action/function was a naïve and simplistic take on the declaration of a politically correct notion that we all have things in common, in other words “we are all brothers”. Which leads to a rather dangerous statement about diversity and difference. Such a clichéd position was presented in an insipid manner which confused and in true egalitarian fashion assimilated sound, music, language transporting the audience from one sound to another at the backdrop of a buzzing multicultural and multilingual city.

On the same day we also saw the programme “Madison as I imagine it” by the John Jasperse Company. This foursome launched into a cool and groovy dance style in “ American sophistication” which unfortunately was a boring and lifeless choreography. It looked more like a bad imitation of David Gordon (or as some might say David Gordon without the talent). What worked best in this performance was based on the unusual perspective which had the dancers lying on stage with the soles of their feet towards the audience or their toes moving in the same direction. We found interesting this reversal of the concept of the stage boundaries and the breaking down of the taboo which demands that the various body parts do not receive a similar exposure to the audience. It reminded us of the equality with which Cunningham, decades ago, treated the different parts of the stage and the action taking place on stage, where the criterion of their relative importance was the spectator’s eye; what was of interest to him or her, and for as long as that action managed to hold his attention. John Jasperse transformed the stage into a pop window display asking the audience to engage in a process of reconfiguring the work of art to their requirements.

For many the third programme of the day was a sure thing, as the Spanish Compania Nacional de Danza and its choreographer and artistic director Nacho Duato are known as crowd pleasers. “Remansos”, “Self” and “Por vos Muero” showcased the athleticism, flexibility, virtuosity and ability for musical interpretation of the company’s dancers. Duato’s work is immersed in the pure preoccupation and high brow style of modernism, and has applied its lessons to a more contemporary ensemble. His sleek choreographies carry influences by Hans van Manen (gothic grief), Kylian (neoclassical lyricism) and Forsythe (exploitation of the possibilities of the dancer’s body). Duato’s successful recipes are based on work peppered with movements which refer to asceticism, or may be seen as demure; small movements which comment on the uprising of man when one’s choices and personality are threatened, perhaps because of isolation or a passionate love affair. He has an extreme ability to develop and pull together many different strands which is his strongest point. He is an eclectic who shows great passions like a style statement and which places him in the group of the meta-modernisers. There is hope that we will not see again angst ridden dramas like “Self” which had taken too seriously man’s effort to withstand uniformity-know thyself-to dematerialise and thus rise to a higher plain etc. Whichever way you talk about this, there is no escaping the boredom.