Brown, A

English

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DANCE THEATRE JOURNAL 3NOTTINGHAM RULESAndrew Brown reports from this year's nottdance festivalnottdance06 brought exciting newcomers toNottingham and the UK, in particular Alain Buffardand the Brazilian triple bill of Michel Groisman,Marcela Levi and Luiz de Abreu. The festival alsomaintained its productive relationships with severalartists including Thomas Lehmen and the ever-green Jonathan Burrows (performing with MatteoFargion) and reaffirmed its commitment to the pro-gramming of both intimate one-on-one andensemble works. The spectacle of performers enmasse has long been a feature despite the addi-tionallogistical burden and expense. Not onlywere La Ribot's 40 espontaneos and Frank Bockand Sirnon Vincenzis Here, as if they hadn't been,as if they are not a continuation of this trend butalso demonstrated another preoccupation of thefestival - in rule-based work. But whereas MariaRibot's rules made for benign lunacy, Bock &Vincenzi's resulted in an atrocity exhibition.La Ribot opened the festival with a celebration ofhumanity. Fifteen or more volunteers aged overforty, without previous performing experience,were given the freedom of the Sandfield Theatre,having spent a mere five evening workshops withthe artist. The outcome was a carnivalesque cycleof renewal against an ever-changing multi-coloured carpet of fabric, large posters and furni-ture. The mischievous and overdressed performersfrequently infiltrated the audience, comingamongst us to claim objects. La Ribot herself, doc-umenting the show from back of the auditorium,was evidently enjoying proceedings.A notable effect of the piece's apparent informali-ty, the performers' gleeful manner and the houselights being up throughout, was the liberatingeffect upon sections of the audience. Unwrittencodes of behaviour were set aside as peoplelaughed, talked, shouted out loud and even atecake. The sonic refrain of the piece took the formof collective laughter, inevitably including some-one's outrageous hiccupping laugh, which naturallytickled everyone's funny bone. But laughter wearsthin over time and enters a phase in which it canbe observed dispassionately. Feelings during thepiece underwent a disconcerting split, betweenappreciation of the visual aesthetic of set and per-formers, and mounting irritation and Cl vague feel-ing of nausea. William Miller (1998) suggests inThe Anatomy of Disgust that laughter, when toolong or frequent can 'prompt disapproval or dis-gust' and that laughter evoking animalesquesounds, such as 'hyena-like yelpings', is particularlyculpable. It may seem odd for an artist to encour-age us to dwell on such things, but La Ribot hasnever baulked at confronting us with our own psy-chological complexes.As the floor space became entirely covered, laugh-ter subsided and the performers played dead andbecame sleeping exhibits, each holding a differentnumber. After a brief lull they began again, swap-ping clothes, donning odd shoes or 'one shoe on,one shoe off'. and righting furniture. The 15 werethen joined by three more bounding on from theaudience, presumably the 'espontaneos' alludedto in the piece's title.Twenty minutes in and still laughing, I speculatedwhether one could really die laughing as they bellylaughed themselves off chairs, sliding to the floor,'dying' over and over again. As the lights graduallydimmed, the last were dropping yet more expertly,still proudly clutching their numbers.Bock & Vincenzi employed similar means to affecttheir audience: repetitive motifs, the spectacle ofhuman beings behaving to some extent involuntar-ily, disgust, and dissonant sound, though notablynot much laughter. Here, as if they hadn't been, asif they are not, follows Prelude (2004) and CA/trove(200S) and functions as an epilogue to the InvisibleDances that have provided the artists with a pro-ductive framework for practical research for thepast seven years.It was a warm evening in Nottingham and itsoppressiveness was asking demanding questionsof the audience even before the show had begun.4 DANCE THEATRE JOURNALMost stayed in their seats for the full two hours butsome were certainly regretting their choice ofentertainment as tension mounted to breakingpoint, and we were held witness to repeatedcycles of abject behaviour. For those whose atten-tion was prone to drift in and out of focus, randomstabs of sound and light were thoughtfully provid-ed to prod the consciousness.Despite contemporary trappings, the first of threeacts referenced Greek mythology as a figureresembling 'Ulysses, come back from Troy' enteredthe space, arms outstretched in appeal. To borrowa phrase from George Hyde (1990), he appearedas 'a traumatized Everyman from the boundaries oflife and death', clutching his ears as though thenoise in his own head was impossible to bear. Thenoise in the theatre felt only marginally less so,with dense layers of chattering electronics buildingand shifting ominously. The act ended with a sud-den loud bang as the single bulb that had beenthe main source of light fell to the ground andthrew the stage into darkness. Gradually an other-worldly green light revealed a host of troublingcharacters.As the piece progressed it became apparent thateach one was subject to different rules and cues,either in the form of speech or sound played viaheadphones from minidisc players attached totheir belts. Fellow performers would insert a discinto another's player and stand back as the subjectunderwent apparent agonies. In extremis, theyseemed dangerously disturbed and out of control,oblivious to their surroundings, eventually cominground as though out of a fit, the sound having pre-sumably ceased.Two women and two men, dressed in black, playeda sober-looking counterpoint to the rest of thefreak show: a dishevelled carnival reveler stagger-ing on high heels; a blind man in grey feeling hisway around the entire space, moving as throughportals of sleep, in his sock; a group of three char-acters in swimwear and white masks, with their pal-lid bodies protruding from their trunks resemblinginhabitants of a municipal pool (this trio appearedtransfixed by a TV monitor that was presumablyproviding the cues for their unique movement; analmost obscene shudderinq open-legged balanc-ing act, accompanied by a hissing sound likewater, or escaping gas); a mumbling blondehaired, 60s throwback, with an appalling blue tingeto his skin; a young woman wearing a hooded top,seemingly even more disturbed than the rest dueto her administering the sounds to herself, whopulled up her hood and sunk into oblivion orexquisite pain, arms extended, hand fluttering,ending up on the floor, jerking and calling out; astatuesque female narrator whose disembodiedvoice described horrific scenarios in an alternatereality - the unseen characters she introducedmaking the space feel even more crowded, as thedead mingled with their living counterparts.These were characters one wouldn't wish to meetbeing affected by sounds one wouldn't want to lis-ten to, each one 'the objectification of therepressed part of the psyche' (Hyde, G. M, 1990).Tadeusz Kantor (1975) famously referenced Kleistand Gordon Craig in his manifesto on the Theatreof Death. and expressed his desire to overthrow the'problem' of: 'the living actor, Man, nature's crea-ture ... an alien intrusion into the abstract texture ofa work of art'. Kantor's solution was to augmenteach living actor with their mannequin double. Bock& Vincenzi's performers were alive but shackled bytheir minimal and private instructions. When rulesare imposed upon a human performer to such anextent that they exist onstage merely as a ciphers,Kantor's (and his predecessor's) vision of a stagepopulated by 'puppets' has been partially realised.Sound built up, rushing throughout the space, as ifthe roar of the body's interior. Sound and lightthen cut out, to be replaced by a single tone and aflickering video projection onto the pale shirt of ahuman figure. He performed what transpired to bea painfully protracted bow, bending over, armshanging, to rise again, but seemingly shrunken,hands raised in surrender, appearing to be falling,into darkness.Over several days of the festival Simone Kenyan &Tamara Ashley took up residency within thegrounds of Nottingham's Wollaton Park for theirexploration Exchanging Stone for Coal. By meansof an evolving relationship with their environment(an Elizabethan mansion literally built from stoneexchanged for coal mined from the estate) theyencouraged witnesses to explore global and per-sonal issues, such as the relationships between6 DANCE THEATRE JOURNALproperty, power, privileg e, the funct ion o f labour,and one's own place in all o f th is.The art ists were eng aged in a p rocess o f cont inualexchange , tr ansport ing coa l from one p lace toano ther and returning with wood and stone, 'p ut-t ing something b ack' , exp lo ring mate rial p rop er-t ies and d iverse ways of carry ing and supportingbetween themselves. This also concerned thefut ile dr ive to arrange th ings, to pla ce things 'ju stso' , unt il a person, animal or natural for cesdestroyed the arrangement , emphasising the pro-visional nature of human act ivity and implicitly sug -gesting the n ed for a re-alignment of pr ioritie s.Despite wearing identical blue smocks and b rownstockings, the art ists were not attempting authen-ic recon struction, but grounded themselves andtheir interventions in the here and now. They pro -vided a timely opportunity to refl ec up on the mul-t ip le meanings of the indus rial and military relicsat the adjo in ing Bank Holid ay Steam Rally, as wellas up on the enti re site and the not ion o f 'heritag e'.Theirs were a series o f small ac ts taking pl aceamo ng other small acts: children kicking a ball,families taking a stroll, ani mals fo llowing theirinstruc ts .The ind icati ons are that Dance 4's director N ickyMolloy is consol ida t ing the excellen t and p ion eer-in work of her p redecessor Jane Greenf ield .whilst introducing her ow n agenda in the develop -me nt o f new aspects o f the programme. A strongfeature appears to be in the demysti fica tion o fcontemporary dance/live art practices. What oneexp eriences in a fest ival like nottdance naturall yleads to a desi re to re flect, d iscuss and learn marPost show d iscussions have commonly been usedto th is end but can have thei r lim itation s.Someti mes the agenda o f th e chair person leadsto interesti ng ques tio ns being asked , but neve rquit the same as one would have asked onesel f.ar worse is the takeover id y a fell ow audiencemember bent on self agg randisement. Often thet ime allotte fo r discussion is simp ly too short ,pa rt icularly at a time when pe ople have to gethome using p ubl ic transport.Alternat ives explored at n ttd ance06 included d is-cussions held over lunch the day after the show.The tu rnout for these was prom ising and they cov -ered in te rest ing ground. Another welcomedevelopment was a Saturday afternoon eventPhoto. Ne,l C311aghancalled Revea/in Process - a Dialogue in wh ichart ists (Graeme M iller, Sally Doughty, RosemaryL e, Henr iett a Hale and ddie Nixon) arti culate lypresented and d iscussed their individual notion s ofprocess. It is no t difficu lt to appr eciate whyprocess is so rare ly revealed . Excessive revela tio nmigh t limit appreciati on o f the all -importantabstract within a work. Ther e is also an assumptiontha aud iences p ay to be ente rtai ned and to wi -ness skill and p ro fessionalism, arguabl y best d is-p layed afte r an exhaust ive rehearsal process. Butthere was evide nce of cons idera ble skill and pro-fessionalism in th is parti cular di alogue and it felt afriendly, supporti ve forum in which to be d is-cussing such issues. Whether it cou ld becom e amajor new strand of visib le activity need s furtherconsid eration, bu t b eing allowe d to see the unde r-lying themes, the false starts, the things that di dn 'twork (and the reasons why) can e a revelati on.And all o f these can engender a greater apprecia-ion o f the depth of exp lora io n and sheer perse-verance manifest in the final work, and cou ld resultin the development of a more kno win ,committedand acti ve aud ience . And anyway, aren' t accide n sgeneral ly the most interesting bi ts?Hyde . G M (1990} A New Lease of Dea th Tade usz Kantor andW ielop oleNJielo 011'1 lntr odu c 10 \0 W .elopole W,elopoll.> AnExercise In Theatre New York & London M arion Boyarsant or, T (19751 The heatre 01Death . Krakow Cnco taqe(translated by Plo tr Gralf)M iller, W (1998) The An atomy 0 1 Disqus (p83·84} Ca mbnd qeM assac:h setts & London Harvn,d Un, 'ers,ty ress - 'Andrew Brow n writes and lect ures on art related issues whilstp ursuing his own sonic and soclal an works.

Nottingham rules: Andrew Brown reports from this year's nottdance festival

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