Friday, February 5, 1999
Feelings of love, desire soar in ‘Furioso’
DANCE: Show at Royce Hall utilizes aerial choreography to
emulate euphoric passion
By Sandy Yang
Daily Bruin Staff
Notions of love, sex and desire have always laced dance. But in
the subtly erotic aerial dances of Meryl Tankard’s "Furioso," a
dance program appearing at Royce Hall this weekend, those feelings
are literally lifted off the ground.
"A few couples, when we first did it, said, ‘Oh, we want to go
home. We want to be together,’" Tankard, director of The Australian
Dance Theater, says. "It was really funny."
In "Furioso," Tankard illustrates ethereal love themes through
aerial choreography, in which the dancers, suspended by ropes,
leave the ground and dance in midair. The men are grounded most of
the time, while the women fly seemingly precariously above the
stage.
"It’s how you have this euphoric, exhilarating feeling that
you’re free and you’re flying and soaring, and then on the other
hand you can feel trapped," Tankard says.
This unique approach to choreography has drawn the interest of
dance scholars such as Adrian Kiernander, a New England professor
who is writing a book about Tankard and will lecture before the
performance. He says Tankard asks dancers life questions, and they
translate their answers into movement.
"This piece came from asking the question, ‘What would you do if
you were losing somebody you really loved?’" says Kiernander, a
professor of dance theater at The University of New England. "That
was a particularly potent question for the dancers at the time,
because many of them were in that situation who moved and left
behind people, places and things that they loved."
Although "Furioso" has no actual story, Tankard feels it is a
performance where the audience brings its own narrative to the
dance. "It means different things to different people," Tankard
says. "It’s about love. It’s about making love. It’s this whole
thing that builds and builds and builds to this really frenetic
climax ."
These emotions seem to have resonated with "Furioso" audiences,
packing theaters worldwide. Currently on tour in the United States,
the company has visited Australia and Europe since its 1993
premier.
Since creating "Furioso," Tankard choreographs two dances a
year. In addition, Tankard is the artistic director of Australia’s
longest running modern dance company, The Australian Dance Theatre.
In her work, Tankard explores the different uses of movement, space
and visual expression, especially in "Furioso." "I tried to make
the dancers look like they have no bones so they are just like the
wind flying," Tankard says.
She is also using aerial choreography for the first time in her
impressive body of work. Not only ropes, but backs of walls are
used to "change gravity," according to Tankard. Though the
technique is relatively new, the ideas behind the dance in flight
are nonetheless timeless.
"That’s what people have done for centuries, ballet is like
having women fly," Tankard says. "It’s rather an old-eye view
really."
Originally, Tankard had not anticipated taking advantage of
space in quite this way, but was convinced after one of her dancers
played on the ropes of a stage. There, the idea was conceived,
despite the difficulty of control in midair.
"Because it was a new technique and (the dancers) were flying
really fast, it was quite hard to remember the movements," Tankard
recalls. "We ended up calling the movements cyclone or tidal wave
or things like that."
With the energy that goes into the dance, it is appropriately
called "Furioso," the name of a movement in its music composed by
the late classical composers Arvo Part, Elliot Sharp and Henryk
Gorecki.
Drawing in rave reviews from around the world, audiences are
also responding to this romantic, signature piece in their own
ways.
"You become very energized by the performance and very
sensitized, so you come out tingling," Tankard says. "What you want
to do with that tingling is up to you."
DANCE: "Furioso" will play Friday and Saturday at Royce Hall at
8 p.m. Tickets are $30, $25, $20 and $10 for students. For more
information, call (310) 825-2101.
Comments, feedback, problems?
© 1998 ASUCLA Communications Board[Home]