An ongoing inquiry into the body as ‘home’, where the human vessel is subject to creating, loss and renewalRating
Good
In her most recent dance performance NOVO at The Place, Sivan Rubinstein draws on the Chakra system as a framework to investigate the physical relationship of space, body and emotion that shapes our creation, rupture and renewal.
The very title suggests ‘new’ and this is at the heart of the performance, the pre-show talk and the exhibition. The intellectual or academic thrust of this artistic exploration is to see less of a divide between arts and science and specifically between contrasting art forms, choreography, film, projection and installation. With NOVO we have the dancer exploring space (a rather dimly lit one) to an ongoing soundscape, composed by Liran Donin. Donin’s musical range is excitingly inventive and clearly breaks down barriers of perception with the unexpected playing of the double bass; it is bowed, plucked, strummed and drummed, often on reverb, creating a wide range of atmospheres, rhythms and almost directing the movement.
The choreography is highly expressive and expansive, with the single performer covering and recovering in a large performance space, mostly in shadow and therefore with facial responses obscured. However, this does allow us to focus on the physical dynamics with its spins, pirouettes, skips, leaps and falls, often collapsing from the core then reaching, reaching. Movements are repetitive and limited, circling and re-circling the space with arms extended, sometimes in supplication and at other times in earnest, humbling, with an urgency. This is against a backdrop of some kind of plant-like mutation: the dancer staggers at times and grows from an ape-like position, using all four limbs with urgent dexterity, crawling, reaching through crab formation and uttering additional connecting primitive vocal sounds, driven by and echoed by the musician.
The piece has many moments of drama and it is certainly intense at times. However, it lacks a deep exploration in relation to the project, where the work is generated from a personal philosophy and understanding of the body as not separate from the universe but intrinsically connected to it. Much of the movement suggests images supporting the idea, but in a somewhat limited fashion, in contrast with the music which seems to be more transformative. Rubinstein suggests areas of bodily energy – certainly at the end – with gestures to the crown, third eye, throat, heart and root. But in the main this exploration of the Chakra system as a framework for movement and perception is illusive.
Rubinstein’s approach to the body as ‘home’ is an interesting one, as not only does it house our emotions, truths and lies but of course the seeds of our children. Again though, the approach to this idea seems underdeveloped here. The pre-show talk of life-giving umbilical cords and the exhibited short film with negative images of a pregnant dancer endlessly stretching and gyrating lack deep imaginative exploration. This also seems to be true of the few curated works, and similarly in the dance.
The concept behind NOVO is certainly a worthy topic of study and performance, so it will be interesting to see how this piece develops in the future to encompass such new insight and collaboration.
Work by: Sivan Rubinstein
Composer: Liran Donin
Dramaturg: Xenia Aidonopoulou
Lighting Designer: Zoé Ritchie
Botanical Set Design: Alina Dheere
Costume Designer: Zi Kim
Producer: Treacle Holasz
NOVO runs at The Place until Friday 12 June.
