Last Wednesday night I saw something I really enjoyed. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a contemporary dance performance that I’ve appreciated in this way. H2 Dance and Donald Hutera performed Choreographus Interruptus at The Robin Howard Dance Theatre in London. The communication between the performers and audience members was frequent with gems of dialogue between the performers themselves. I liked this work from the standpoint of my own research into the relationships between maker-performer-observer and I felt this performance was a success in opening up the channels between these three crucial relationships of the dance event.
There were some real moments of magic for me. Firstly, after watching the dancers move for a good half and hour, Donald was asked to dance by an audience member. He did, and he danced with a level of attentiveness to his movement, the space, the sound and all of us watching that was at a seemingly higher level than that of the other performers. It was his gaze that struck me…eyes very open, completely present. His eyes were like a baby’s, taking in everything around him, without judgment and with shocking innocence…fascinating to watch! The second thing that impacted me about Donald’s performance was his fluid movement quality. Although there were moments of stillness, the way he moved was like one continuous thought, both articulate and expressive.
Another magic moment for me occurred during the task the dancers had been set by an audience member to speak their thoughts whilst moving. I had seen this done before (in fact, this is what Susanne and I did when we performed Susanville in 2001). However, the moment when one dancer stood on tiptoe singing and another dancer shouted at her to “shut up” was superb. It was as if she had read the minds of her audience. We all wanted her to shut up and her colleague was brave enough to actually say it. Great stuff.
The last moment I liked but also hated. I hated it because it was an idea I’ve been tossing around in my head for a few months and to see it happen was disappointing…like my idea had been stolen! One dancer moved whilst another described his movement in the vein of a sports commentator. As I suspected, it worked well. Just goes to show, no idea is original. Nevertheless, I still might play around with in the studio this summer…
So, that’s what I thought of Choreographus Interruptus. If you missed it, you missed a good experience.