DANCE: Stanley Peskin
THE first season staged by the excellent Pact Dance=20 Company this year features one new ballet (Susan=20 Abraham’s Heritage) and two familiar works (Robyn Orlin’s=20 As Fall Women, So Fall Women and Christopher Kindo’s Me=20 and You).
Orlin’s work has at its centre three duets which explore=20 the relationship of women to their three male partners.=20 Dressed in futuristic body-stockings which reminded me of=20 the robot-like figures in Woody Allen’s Sleeper, three=20 women are attached to ropes which stretch across the=20 stage and establish the confined spaces in which they are=20 constrained. Little more than automata, they are trapped=20 in the doll-houses which are invented and maintained by=20
Each of the duets is danced in a different plane, but=20 whether the mood is strained, tender or even joyous, the=20 man dictates his presence either by flexing his feet=20 against the back of the woman or spinning her round.=20
The liberation achieved in the final moments of the=20 ballet is short-lived: even though they have removed=20 their helmet caps and their hair is flowing freely, the=20 women are held captive under a huge teapot — a typical=20 Orlin invention — which has been lowered on to the=20 stage. Their place is still the kitchen and, by=20 implication, the bedroom.
Abraham’s Heritage, like Kindo’s work, is based on=20 ritual. The ballet is dedicated to the memory of her=20 mother. The narrative content is slight. The eight=20 dancers/celebrants express not only personal grief but=20 the Jewish heritage of suffering and loss. (It is a pity=20 that the programme note does not give any summary of the=20 meaning of the soulful, plangent songs that accompany the=20
The mood of the works belongs more to the Middle East=20 (particularly the drum passage written by Peter Gabriel)=20 than to the shtetl world of Central Europe. The setting=20 is simple: there are two tables and eight chairs which=20 are skilfully integrated into the choreographic patterns=20 which are more pleasing and persuasive than I have found=20 in Abraham’s earlier work.
I found myself responding more positively to Christopher=20 Kindo’s Me and You than I have done previously. The=20 ballet is still over-long, particularly the last=20 ensemble, but it has considerable variety. The solos and=20 duets are well contrasted and there are some=20 interestingly crafted trios and quartets.=20
Lindy Grindlay’s costumes are appropriately glossy and=20 brightly coloured and Zakir Hussain’s music is=20 compulsive. The dancers are as convincingly Indian as=20 they were Hebrew in Abraham’s piece. The whole evening=20 proved to be engaging entertainment.
Pact Dance Company perform at the Wits Theatre tonight=20 and tomorrow night, then at the Breytenbach Theatre in=20 Pretoria from March 27 to April 1