Review-Trisha Brown Dance Company-Hong Kong Arts Festival
23-2-14
By: Dikshya Karki
As a mixture of bodies glided on stage, swirled in the air and found their way back on foot, the music surfaced with each repeated tune. Rhythmic hand movements were strung skilfully into foot patterns with both ease and precision. The Trisha Brown Dance Company’s presentation of its four compositions at the Hong Kong Arts Festival was as soothing as it was sensuous. The four fluid pieces were juxtaposed in a skilful presentation, hypnotic to watch. What began in the backdrop of Rauschenberg’s artistry ended in Burt Barr’s bright colors.
‘Set and Reset' (1983) began the repertoire and opened with Rauschenberg’s art pieces. The geometry of these three works (projected as video images) was alluring and rose above the dance piece in such a way that the performers were dancing under but also seemed to be on the screen. Mixing the jittery sounds of an old television with images of mundane events, chaos was interpreted through geometry. By dividing attention between the video installation and the lightweight dancers, Brown’s choreography appeared to be playing on the diversion of viewpoints. The costumes, engrained with geometry but translucent, cast a greyish shadow on the stage which seemed like a structuring of Rauschenberg’s belief in the ‘essential form’ of art. In the dancers' repetitive motions and the echo of the title track ‘Long time no see’ under the shadow of the video installation, the days of the radio merged with the ever connected ways of the internet. Information was all pervading and yet hidden.
The second piece ‘If you couldn’t see me' (1994) was performed by Cecily Campbell. It played on the notion of the ‘seductive’ by allowing the dancer to dance without showing her face. The piece was structured for the performer to express through the arches of her back and she did just that. In the sway of her torso and lower limbs, the piece acquired a unique visual quality where the performer spoke devoid of her face. Almost testing to the audience in terms of movement and timing, the piece was drowsy.
'Les Yeux et l’Ame' (2011) - translated from French as ‘the eyes and the soul’ - broke the monotony by bringing into life an opera on the story of love and magic. The black scrawl on screen and the bright music was in tune with the spirit of the dancing bodies that eased with positivity. As if springing to a festive season, they ended the piece on high spirits.
The last piece (performed after the interval) was ‘I’m going to toss my arms-If you catch them they’re yours’, set in the presence of industrial fans. The dancers were playing with and against the wind, allowing their costumes to be blown away, swaying to the sound. In the color of their costumes, the sound of the fans and their controlled and swaying movements, they built on flexibility by twisting into wriggly forms but never losing symmetry.
If you want to experience the magic of this company’s dance you should not miss their free showcase performances at Tamar Park this Monday February 24th at 1pm and 4:30 pm.
Trisha Brown Dance Company has now closed. For more information, click here.
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