CIRCUS
By Na Djinang Circus
At Northcote Town Hall until 30 April 2023
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars:***
This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly, 3MBS, on Sat 29 April.2023. kh
|
Arterial by Na Djinang Circus is less contemporary circus and more acro-dance and movement in its style and content.
The 60 minutes show, directed by Harley Mann who is also founder of Na Djinang, features four performers who are of indigenous heritage (Tamara Bouman, Maggie Church-Kopp, Dylan Singh, Johnathon Brown) and who are committee to accessible, cross-cultural, physical performance.
Mann ensures that Arterial resonates with indigenous dance, imagery and sound (composer Dannie Esposito); the ensemble’s movement has hints of snake and water imagery, and the space is ringed by branches of gum leaves.
Although there are no high-risk, spectacular circus routines, Church-Kopp performs a classic, albeit, simplified aerial tissu act, Singh presents a static trapeze routine and there is an adagio duet and a series of group balance routines.
The group’s movement work is about relationships. They shift in tone from playful to fearful to reflective, and their energy moves from vigorous to gentle or restrained. They engage and repel, drawing each other close or pulling and pushing each other away, changing moods from warmth to suspicion, friendliness to enmity.
At times their interaction is complex and acrobatic or based in contact movement, while at other is it simple walking and running. They use the body’s own sounds, particularly slapping of hands, and the final moment is a simple body percussion of stomping of feet, pounding of chests and breathing.
This Melbourne-based company may not present high-level contemporary circus, but it has heart.
by Kate Herbert
No comments:
Post a Comment