Saturday night the inaugural MoveMe Improvisation Festival officially kicked off in front of an attentive and appreciative audience with a double bill of Beast #3 and No-One Will Tell Us at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA).
The first of the evenings performances was the world premiere of Beast #3 the latest work from WA based Jo Pollitt and Paea Leach. Starting with just the two of them on stage, it gradually grew into more of an ensemble piece with six other performers joining Pollitt and Leach at different times over the course of the 35 minute performance.
Initially to my untrained eye the performance, seemed perhaps more choreographed than improvised, however as time went on, I began to notice the subtle differences between each of the performers; that rather that all doing the same moves, there was a freedom, to borrow some jazz terminology, to riff on a given theme, or in this case a movement, to inject it with a little bit of the dancers personality or style. Indeed it was interesting to see the different styles of the different dancers come out into the open, however subtly.
It was a compelling performance, the whole thing flowed beautifully and there just seemed to be a brilliant synergy between dancers and the music; which spanned more than a few different genres, and even ventured into static at times.
After a short interval to give the next performers a chance to set up, and the audience a chance to “rehydrate”; we were back in our seats for the WA premiere of No-One Will Ever.. featuring acclaimed Australian dance practitioner Rosalind Crisp and Swiss musician Hansueli Tischhauser.
Right from the outset the performance captured my attention. I wasn’t exactly sure what the hell was going on, but I couldn’t look away, due pretty much entirely to Crisp. There is a strange otherness to her movements that grabs your attention. In contrast to the more fluid movements in Beast #3 Crisp’s moves were more stilted and sharp which only serves to reinforce that otherness.
The performance also turned out to be much funnier than I was expecting, whether it be due to Australian improviser Andrew Morrish’s riffs on microphones or “emergency shirts” or Tischhauser’s interactions with misbehaving effects peddles or flying insects. I also found myself incredibly impressed with Tischhauser’s guitar playing; with a little bit of technical wizardry he created some fantastic soundscapes with brilliant little nods towards country, rockabilly and those early rock n roll instrumentals.
Another element of the performance, which I felt was really strong, was the lighting. Lighting designer Marco Wehrpann really managed to compliment and enhance the mood and feeling conjured up by either the music or Crisp’s movements. Also finally, I liked that there was an underlying narrative to the performance, I don’t know if that was improvised on the spot by Morrish; but for me it worked well and gelled all the different performative elements together.
All in all both performances provided me with a brilliant introduction to the world of improvisation, and specifically the role of improvisation in dance. Also given this is the first year the festival is running, it was good to see a reasonably good-sized audience out in support of the festival and the artists.
__
Beast #3 and No-One Will Tell Us.. were performed at PICA as part of the MoveMe Improvisation Festival 2014. For more information about the MoveMe Improvisation Festival visit: http://moveme.org.au/impfest/
———-
