No Stronger than a Flower
Performance Reviews || Friday, 25 August, 2006
When choreographer, Jan De Schykel, was inspired by Shakespeare’s Sonnet 65: “how with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, whose action is no stronger than a flower”, he took the literal step of using flowers as a symbol in the piece.
They do not appear until later on but I was struck at how robust they appeared to be, several large plastic ones! In fact the use of props posed the danger of overshadowing the dancers.
Attire and objects provided light relief to what was quite a serious piece; from the blow-up “hobbit” costumes to the coffee percolator’s humorous rhythmic puffs of steam (also providing a form of percussion) and of course the flowers also appearing as an animated backdrop.
There was a lot to keep you amused, being drawn particularly to the element of mime due to expressive faces and imp-like movement. Although contemporary dance audiences don’t like to be spoon-fed and are not used to narratives we still like to know the meaning behind the performance.
Sometimes it is enough to enjoy the aesthetics but the frustrating thing for me was knowing there was a deeper element to the piece and that I might be missing something.
I felt a bit lost and disengaged during the middle of the piece. The movement was certainly challenging for the dancers and skillfully executed but that is not always enough for an audience to grab on to and run with.
However it started to come together at the end. The mainstream pop music awakens our inner rhythm; the bizarre-looking “hobbits” de-robe and conform to the flowing, inoffensive movement of the black-leotarded dancers. Once again the audience is engaged and that for me had stronger meaning.
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