Ritchie-Jones and Michaela Tancheff have spent years developing their partnering practice, and R.A.I.N pushes them towards its breaking point. The title is an acronym for a mindfulness technique that involves recognising what you are experiencing, accepting it as it is, exploring it, and responding to yourself with self-compassion, but this is less concerned with explaining those ideas than seeing what happens when the dancers permit themselves to let go.
The piece starts small as two bodies move close together in semi-darkness, largely contained within a limited physical world. Over the course of the show, that world gets bigger. The lighting by Alex Nguyen becomes brighter and the movement more expansive as they give themselves room to breathe and let their bodies do what they feel like, including dancing on the walls.
While being grounded in contemporary dance, R.A.I.N moves through various other genres, from pop to opera to western influences, with each giving Ritchie-Jones and Tancheff a different way to use their bodies and voices. Some sections border on the absurd, but rarely push so far that the humour becomes the whole point. The music and sound by Moses Carr and Nick Roder help move between these styles without taking attention away from the dancers.
One sequence has Ritchie-Jones thrust Tancheff forward but fail to grab her hand to pull her back. She stumbles, but instead of stopping and resetting, she keeps going. Soon she is running in circles around the stage, her stumble turning into elaborate footwork. Ritchie-Jones watches her before getting swept up in it and joining in Tancheff.
This captures what R.A.I.N is interested in, with the dancers allowing something unexpected to shape what happens next. That willingness to see where something leads runs through the production. Repetition can make an action stranger, while the dancers often seem to discover what comes next alongside us, presenting something that feels less predetermined. I could see what R.A.I.N was examining, and there was plenty to observe in the dancers' readiness to let go of control, but I didn't always feel emotionally connected to it.
That feeling also carries through to the costumes and set pieces. Both dancers wear grey bodysuits designed by Andrew Treloar, with Ritchie-Jones in red sleeves and Tancheff in blue. A free-standing mirror sits angled in the back corner, offering another view of the performance but never becoming part of the action. In a piece built around reflection and letting go of control, these are intriguing choices, but their purpose is never made clear.
From those barely audible voices at the beginning, R.A.I.N gradually opens itself up. What starts with two people moving cautiously together becomes something much less controlled, as they give their bodies permission to go wherever they want. Sometimes that produces something unusual, sometimes humorous, and sometimes simply enjoyable to watch.
SHOW DETAILS
Venue: Arts House, 521 Queensberry St, North Melbourne
Season: until 20 September | Fri 7.30pm, Sat 2pm and 7:30pm, Sun 5pm
Duration: 50 minutes
Tickets: $40 Full | $25 Conc
Bookings: Arts House
Image credit: Darren Gill
No comments:
Post a Comment