Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 23 October 2008

Stephen Petronio Company

THE WORLD of contemporary visual art, music and fashion collide in the work of choreographer Stephen Petronio. Taking his bow at the end of the performance like a designer with his catwalk models, there is thankfully both style and substance in the performance.

Petronio’s work clearly facilitates and inspires interdisciplinary collaborative work, a core strength of the company he founded in 1984. Petronio has created an impressive body of work collaborating with composers such as Rufus Wainwright, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Michael Nyman, James Lavelle, Wire, Lenny Pickett and David Linton, visual artists Cindy Sherman, Anish Kapoor, Donald Baechler, Stephen Hannock, Charles Atlas and fashion designers Benjamin Cho, Rachel Roy, Tara Subkoff/ Imitation of Christ, Leigh Bowery, Tanya Sarne/ Ghost and Manolo.

I have no doubt that such collaborations do much to widen the audience for contemporary dance on an international stage. However it is the creative vision and excellence in terms of craft that impress most in the company’s performance.

One of the meanings of the word “voice” is expression, and this purity it is a quality shared by both choreographer and composer in Bud Suite and Bloom.

Bud Suite (2006) links four pre-existing works by Rufus Wainwright; ‘Oh What A World’, ‘Vibrate’, ‘This Love Affair’, and ‘Agnus Dei’, in what Petronio describes as “a story in the loosest possible way, about interrelationships and how people touch each other”. It is an expansive work in movement, sound and theme beginning with ‘Oh What A World’, a robust sequence for two male dancers governed by the dominant rhythm of the tuba and echoed in the sampling of Ravel’s ‘Bolero’.

Half jacketed costumes by Tara Subkoff/ Imitation of Christ and H.Petal were bisected vertically, suggesting a division of the body into zones of passion and constraint. Within the sequence the choreography expands from an intimate partnership outward through movement, a feeling which is mirrored in the work as a whole. Wainwright’s voice too echoes this pattern in a transition from earth bound resonance to the exquisitely beautiful and powerful ‘Agnus Dei’ of the final movement.

The second movement, ‘Vibrate’, combines the sublime, languid flow of Wainwright’s voice accompanied by pizzicato strings with an impressive ease and range of movement from the dancers. The choreography is visibly grounded in the formal language of classical ballet but extends the form into a range of movement that is arguably far more expressive and abstract.

Petronio also creates a sense of balance between masculine and feminine in his work, mirrored in Rachel Roy’s costuming for ‘Vibrate’, a fusion of white business shirts and hot pink sections of tutu. Throughout this performance there is a sense of shared vision and equality between music, design and movement.

The third section of Bud Suite, ‘This Love Affair’, underpinned by the melancholy of piano and strings, articulates beautifully the ache of walking away. The description of Wainwright’s voice as that of “a fallen angel” seems particularly apt as there is an evolution in both Bud Suite and in Bloom that has emotional resonance, of elements both dark and light and of transformation through experience.

Here the pas de deux evolves into a separation of movement and although this signifies the end of a relationship it feels like a chapter not a conclusion in relation to the whole work. The final ‘Agnus Dei’ begins with a lone dancer in a square of light accompanied initially by rasping percussion and Eastern strings. The golden light on stage then becomes an audible presence in Wainwright’s extraordinary voice, filling the entire theatre.

Bloom (2006), featuring specially commissioned original music by Rufus Wainwright and lyrics from the Lux aeterna (Latin Mass), ‘Unseen Buds’ and ‘One’s- Self I Sing’ by Walt Whitman and ‘Hope Is The Thing With Feathers’ by Emily Dickinson, presents a meditation on growth from innocence to experience.

Bloom is driven by the choral arrangement, utilising Wainwright’s multilayered voice in the round in a fusion of secular poetry and sacred text. ‘Hope Is The Thing With Feathers’ with its buoyant energetic choreography elevates Bloom in conclusion as a work of aspiration and potential. Petronio also introduces a sculptural element to the choreography in this work with moments of stillness, poise and silence that are explored in a more extreme way by the earlier work which closed the show, Lareigne (1995).

The first section of Lareigne accompanied by ‘No More Heroes’ by The Stranglers seemed an odd juxtaposition, choreographed in a way that that is completely at odds with the music. Whilst contrast may well be the point, it felt like an empty gesture in relation to a particular song and I was puzzled as to why Petronio chose to include it.

Whilst I enjoyed the total contrast in energy and mood in the second half of the programme, David Linton’s original music for Lareigne became dull noise after a while. There was some modulation but not enough tonal contrast to make it engaging. Comprised of electronic and percussive sounds I felt like I was trapped inside a computer game.

The most interesting sections of choreography and sound derived, perhaps ironically, from the interruption of the flow of the movement. These moments of stillness where the dancers became tilted by degrees were incredibly subtle and beautifully composed living sculptures.

Petronio’s work is like a cross between Whitman’s ‘One’s-Self I Sing’ and ‘Unseen Buds’, a creative vision “Of life immense in passion, pulse and power” coupled with the “germinal”, “exquisite” and “delicate” nature of being human. He is a fascinating artist and collaborator and I sincerely hope that the full evening length work being planned for the company’s 25th Anniversary season will also tour here.

© Georgina Coburn, 2008

Links

• Stephen Petronio

• Dance Consortium

• Eden Court Theatre