Performance Space (@ Carriageworks) and De Quincey Company were proud partners in choreographer Tess de Quincey's latest offering, Triptych. The three canvases for this work were air, electricity and water. De Quincey’s reputation, as presiding over an accomplished, cross-disciplinary company, precedes her and praise has been lavish. And the rationale for the company's approach reads well, if a little intellectually: De Quincey Co 'investigates the conflicting pressures of technology, culture and politics that challenge our imagination and way of life', allowing 'the space, mood and environment to shape each performance afresh, leading to an intimate and unpredictable exchange between performers and audience'. Uh-huh.
Certainly, entering the large, open space, filing into a narrow vertical 'column', confronted by several massive screens, onto which images matching the themes were consecutively projected, was impressive. Some might've even found it novel, but I've seen this kind of thing before; not that this fact diminished the impact too much.
I've the humility to admit the possibility that, as someone ostensibly devoid of the kind of body sense so amply and enviably evident in performers Peter Fraser, Victoria Hunt, Linda Luke & Lizzie Thompson, there might be nuances, subtleties and degrees of difficulty I might overlook. This can probably be sheeted home to the company's Bodyweather training, a an aesthetically-neutral, philosophical form of awareness and exploration founded by butoh dancer, Mia Tanaka, which draws on not only eastern and western dance, but sports training, martial arts and theatre practice.
From 1985-91, de Quincey was a member of Mai-Juku, Tanaka's company. During that time, she pioneered the method in Australia and has adopted it as the underpinning for her own company.
I'm not entirely persuaded said method is always as profound, or satiating, for the audience, as it is for the artist. The gradual unfoldings of movement, while undeniably captivating, to a point, tend, perhaps, to become, to the untrained eye, repetitive, with strong ideas substantially left wanting of their full potential.
Having said that, much of the second movement, as it were, was, for mine, a highly-effective take on our captivity in a digital world and largely futile attempts to escape, control or transcend it. There were similarly potent allusions to the desire for something higher, in the first movement, showing our yearning for flight and, even spiritual upliftment, through the thinnest and most ethereal of the elements. The final movement never bubbled along, without ever realising the shape of a wave: a crescendo, crest and denouement.
If there was an essential problem with Triptych, it was an ironic one: the audiovisual components, which should've been backdrops, were so impressive as to tend to overshadow the dance. This, thanks to Robin Fox and his oscilliscopes. The Melbournian is currently working with live digital media in improvised, composed and installation settings. He creates works for the cathode ray oscilloscope; whatever that is. 'The extreme dynamics of the oscilloscopes track electrical waves and frequencies in massive, yet astoundingly beautiful, complexities.' Uh-huh! He has a PhD in composition, from Monash, 'focusing on the development of multi-channel performance ecologies and the design of interactive electroacoustic situations, that explore the dynamic between performer, space and computer' (as well he should) and an MA in musicology, which documents the history of experimental music making in Melbourne 1975-9. At least I can understand the last. Whatever the hell it is he does, he does it brilliantly and has all over the globe. Sound, by Chris Abrahams, had me wanting to inhabit the space, if only to 'own' the system. Lighting design, by Travis Hodgson, completed the technical suite, sweetly.
TRIPTYCH
De Quincey Co
Choreographer/Director Tess de Quincey
Performers Peter Fraser, Victoria Hunt, Linda Luke, Lizzie Thomson
Venue: Performance Space @ Carriageworks, 245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh
Dates/Times: 6–15 Nov Wed-Sat 8PM, Sat 8 & 15 Nov 4PM
Tickets: $30/$25/$20 + Booking fee
Bookings: ticketmaster.com.au or 1300 723 038
