Dance in the round

Press, 1 May 1981, Page 4

Dance in the round

By

HEATH LEES

For their current national tour, Impulse Dance Theatre has chosen to use art galleries as the main performing venue. Last evening was the first of a short, two-night series, and used the central court of the Robert McDougall Art Gallery for/, the production. There are pros and cons to/ such a scheme. The hallitself is very striking, and the audience is seated in an informal way, clustered on the steps around the main performance area. Intimacy , and a sense of close participation is therefore easily obtained, But it must also be said that the dancers need a certain element of “aesthetic distance” from the audience | if they are to perform any | stylised pieces with success. I The slightest variation in synchronisation is immedi-

alely noticeable, and the flicker.of-eyes or the natural small Vibration of extended limbs, the perspiration, the odd blemish in custume — all these are cruelly exposed in such a setting, and seem to cramp the dancers, while causing distraction to the audience. The performers .have to be very, good, and " tfeaudience very tolerant. Sometimes we managed it, and it'was very good indeed. The final piece of the first half —< “Carousel”— . was imaginatively choreographed and full of. swirling, cascading -patterns of movement, greatly, aided by the circling streamers'attached to each member of the group. ' In . some ways' too, Wananga-T-Te-Rangi '.benefited- from the smaller setting. The music seemed more evocative and at last we had a chance to see these fabulous masks in detail. One way and another r hs>v» coon

this dance four times now,

and whilst it hardly amounts to the saturation of exposure of an Erebus inquiry or a Springbok tour, still it would have been nice to have had an all-new programme for this tour.-

Some changes were made en route due to the unfortunate indisposition of Felicity Molloy, but “Front, Back and Side-on” obviously needed the sixth member, while “Friends” had to be cancelled; although Lyne Pringle’s solo piece was a pleasing substitute. ' It will be interesting to see what the '- group does in future; whether it will revert to a more theatrical, stylised ambience, or move further into the chamber presentation essays. In the latter case a more fluid, improvisatory approach might need to be explored, but it would be an exciting challenge for the eomnAnv, and indeed for us.