Several serial themes have prevailed in the work of Russell Maliphant over many years. There is often shadow play (the choreographer memorably danced with his own giant shadow in Shift); his sets are sometimes dominated by a single large structure (such as the wall that was integral to The Rodin Project); and there has been a progressively strong association between lighting and the body since his early forays with the lighting designer, Michael Hulls (who could ever forget Daniel Proietto in Afterlight or Sylvie Guillem in Two), building up to the more recent Silent Lines, in which lighting essentially became the costume design! Vortex is the latest in Maliphant’s ongoing explorations into the rich performance potential that can be mined from blending these artistic elements.
There is plenty of shadow play in Vortex with the five dancers gently expanding and contracting in group interaction with their own shadows, giving the impression of multiple bodies. Later, giant shadows were cast far out into the stalls. The main feature of the Vortex set was a large mobile structure, like a giant table-tennis table, that could be tilted to provide a different performance level on a platform raked to 45 degrees. Ryan Joseph Stafford's attractive interactions of lighting with the five bodies was achieved in a variety of ways: from glowing limbs of dancers radiating onto the upturned platform to the idea of paint expressively splattered onto the bodies through lighting designs partially reminiscent of Silent Lines.
Another periodic theme in Maliphant’s work has been linking his choreography with the aesthetic of an artist or their subject: the latter was the inspiration for Afterlight (2009) which began as a workshop informed by artistic images of Nijinsky; and The Rodin Project speaks for itself in Maliphant’s expression of movement that he found in Rodin’s sculptures. Vortex has been inspired by the works and the artistic process of Jackson Pollock. By coincidence, I recently visited an exhibition of work by Pollock, his wife Lee Krasner, and their contemporaries in the abstract expressionist movement. The exhibition (in Oslo) was entitled The Shape of Freedom and it was a phrase that came to me often during Vortex since it seemed that Maliphant was frequently expressing shapes of freedom in his movement.
Light flooding down from directly overhead is often apparent in Maliphant’s work and here that downward light was embellished by sand gently falling to the stage. This had both an immediate and a lasting impact; the one being the ethereal swirls of fine sand being picked out by the lighting, and the other in patterns made by dancers’ feet and bodies in the accumulated sand on the stage: simulating the abstract expressionist imagery created in Pollock’s art.
Added to the richness of these design elements, Maliphant has long ago achieved and sustained that special choreographic gift of a movement style that is recognisably his, and his alone: bodies twist and flex as if the fascia within is being expanded and tightened to the limit although his dancers turn and bend with a fluidity that belies any physical effort in their torsion. They appear comfortable in movement that would be unbearable for ordinary humans.
Several sequences of the dance were mesmerisingly beautiful not least a stunning duet for Charlie Brittain and Alex Thirkle, performing on the platform raised at that 45 degree angle without any aids to their equilibrium, which was achieved solely by their strength and balance and yet without, even for a moment, disturbing the gentle, romantic flow of their movement. One repeated image of the two performers bending away from each other, reaching back and away with hyper-flexibility, was especially memorable.
The final element that enriched the serenity of Vortex was Katya Richardson’s bespoke score. Maliphant has always taken great care in his choice of music, both pre-existing and commissioned, and Richardson’s minimalist composition squeezes every kind of sound possible from the potential of a piano, whether gentle lyricism from the keyboard, or insistent percussion from the outer casing. By preparing the instrument through resting everyday objects on the strings (she mentioned screws and putty in an informative programme note), Richardson successfully replicated the concept of abstract expressionism in her sound.
We have enjoyed a rich continuum of classy, intelligent, and beautiful dance from Maliphant over many years and there should be much more to come. The elephant in the auditorium, however, is his dance company's loss of NPO status (permanent company funding from the Arts Council) after many years of support. It seems inconceivable that an artist at the very top of his game, as is once again evidenced by this new work, is no longer deemed suitable for such backing.
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