Irish Times writers review the Ballet Fireworks at the Cork Opera House, Tanz Ensemble at the Town Hall in Galway, and TalkSexShow at Project Cube in Dublin.
Ballet Fireworks
Cork Opera House
Micheal Seaver
Ballet Ireland chose Cork, the spiritual home of ballet in this country, to launch its Ballet Fireworks tour. This type of divertissement programme is perennially popular with audiences and allows companies to present the hits without concomitant demands of décor, plot and structure. Divorcing dances from their structure like this can change perceptions. The popular lollipops such as Danse de Mirlitons from The Nutcracker and the Cygnets from Swan Lake remain unchanged since they are just vehicles for dancing rather important devices for plot advancement. Even those that are essential to the plot, such as the Lilac Fairy solo from Sleeping Beauty, can allow careful focus on the dancing when presented in an uncluttered format.
Under the microscope, the dancing magnifies the range of talent and proficiency in the company, and it's the more experienced performers that carry many of the pieces. Alone on stage, Cressinda Merrit-Webb's Lilac Fairy was fluent and assured, while Stephen Brennan could make the audience laugh in Clown Dance as well as show a keen sharpness in the more abstract works. His steady partnering contrasted with that of the other male dancers.
New works by Gunther Falusy gave the opportunity for larger groups of dancers but the choreographic craft evident in all of the works was disappointing. The conceptual naïvety of the parading dancers in Royal Fireworks and the brash American-inspired Bravura suffered alongside Petipa and Ivanov classics.
The promised triumph of good over evil in Mutation relied on clumsy costume changes under the evil character's cloak, and while Kuss may "celebrate the free spirit and free form" that Isadora Duncan brought to dance it didn't share her pre-feminist ideology: the white-gowned woman succumbs to the evil man. Production standards didn't do justice to the performers. Music was too quiet throughout and the lights didn't illuminate faces in many pieces. While the audience gave generous applause, mutterings overheard from the ballet-savvy Corkonians confirmed my belief that we should expect a lot more.
Tanz Ensemble
Cathy Sharp
Town Hall, Galway
Separation, isolation and the search for identity lie at the heart of Aistir/Voyages, a new work by Tanz Ensemble Cathy Sharp from Switzerland.
While the 150th anniversary of the Irish Famine focused thought on the long-standing consequences of mass emigration, Aistir/Voyages considers both Irish and Swiss emigration. Choosing the traditional rather than the abstract, choreographer Cathy Sharp cloaks the movement with nostalgia, and the design features the inevitable flat caps and tweeds. But in combining Irish and Rumantsch, a language spoken in the Grischon alpine valleys, and the sounds of fiddle and accordion with alphorn and büchel she creates a resonant backdrop for the dance. These are deeply rooted sounds resonating earth and legacy. Six doors are suspended at the back of the stage, a reminder of flight, while the dancers set up tableaux that set off the isolation of Brenda Marcus as the emigrant. She contrasts the crouched loping sean-nós steps of the group with Máirín's more theatrical and fluid vocabulary, full of newness and hope. Narrator Pauline Nic Chonaonaigh is woven into the action, but her delivery is too light and intrudes on the pervading foreboding and sadness. Movement speaks clearest when accompanied by Nuala Ní Chanainn's singing or the sonorous alphorn.
Preceding Aistir/Voyages is a short piece by Nils Christe entitled Reminiscence. Helena Zwiauer walks backwards across the diagonal of the stage, arms weaving almost disconnected from her torso. She dances three duets with different men who all seem like different versions of the one person. Arms play a large part in expression, gathering in space and holding it like a memory or initiating movement in another part of the body. Towards the end arms are held vertically in front of a male dancers face, like a boxer's defence, and are opened out by the female. She falls backwards but he catches her, and the pattern starts again. Despite its simplicity, is was oddly moving and was indicative of Christe's ability to let the movement be direct and clear, yet emotional and meaningful.
The tour continues, including Limerick, Kilkenny, Derry and Tallaght
TalkSexShow
Project Cube, Dublin Fringe Festival
Louise East
Good theatre should always leave you questioning, but it's not a good thing if that question is "Why bother?". TalkSexShow is a slick production by Welsh company, Volcano, with more mature design and staging than most Fringe shows. The performances of Rachael Harrison and Eric MacLennan are polished enough,but they get little chance to flex either their comic or dramatic muscles, because TalkSexShow can't seem to decide exactly what it is. Is it a piss-take of 1970s-style sex therapy? If so, why does The Guru (and scriptwriter) Paul Davies determinedly steer his script in the opposite direction as soon as he gets the audience laughing? Is it then a satirical look at attitudes towards contemporary sexuality? Or a light-hearted piece of physical slapstick? None of these is particularly well-achieved or even seriously pursued, and by the time we reach the finale with its detachable penises and overwrought music, we don't particularly care.
