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Photo - Bernd Uhlig

Dance theatre is a distinctly European form. Owing it’s origins to visionary German artist Pina Bausch, it is a rich forum for image based performance. Any choreographer working in this field will inevitably be likened to Bausch and in the case of Sasha Waltz’s Körper, comparisons are unavoidable.

Presented as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival Körper is an exploration of the implications, limitations and origins of the body. Thirteen dancers offer a feast of flesh as they manipulate, observe and investigate their own skin. The dancers systematically and efficiently reduce the body to parts, presenting a parade of disjointed limbs and heaving sweating flesh.

Startling images emerge from the writhing bodies. Strange creatures like Frankenstein’s monster scuttle and slide. Disturbing conglomerations of flesh, they are like horrific human pantomime horses, tragic and darkly comic. There are repeated motifs of spinal columns and cracking bones as the dancers grab handfuls of each other, dragging and draining the body of water in a methodical ritualistic procedure. The subterranean sound design by Hans Peter Kuhn emits clangs and muted drippings, surrounding the space and encasing the audience, later building to a throbbing climax.

A mesmerising fish tank sequence is perhaps the highlight, with the dancers appearing to be floating, submerged behind a wall of glass. Gravity is no obstacle as they hover serenely, drifting slowly across the surface, appearing simultaneously horizontal and vertical, beatifically detached.

The first segment of the piece was sparse and developed the themes of the work. Flesh was dealt with in a medical, matter of fact way, with an absence of an emotional, personal connection to one’s skin. Although brief insight was offered in the form of short monologues, as the performers described aspects of their own body and their relationship to it.

However, what was focused and intricate became unnecessary and indulgent, moving off into sheer abstractness and losing the refined impact of the earlier sections. Repetition grated and the audience became distanced from the performers as well as losing touch with the content of the work. An edit of the material would assist in sharpening the piece, which currently seems overly long.

Körper is an all out, large scale theatrical experience. It is a kind of work that is so rare in Australia and is exciting to witness, if merely for the sheer breadth of the production. Waltz is clearly an imaginative and inventive choreographer and her dancers are technically accomplished, beautiful movers.

Körper contains amazing, distilled moments that resonate, despite the noise that surrounds them.


Sasha Waltz & Guests
Körper

Venue: the Arts Centre, State Theatre
Dates: Thu 15, Fri 16 & Sat 17 Oct at 7.30pm
Duration: 1hr 15min no interval
Prices: Premium $97.50
A Reserve Full $75 / Groups (8+) $67.50 / Concession $56.25
B Reserve Full $60 / Concession $45
C Reserve Full $42 / Concession $31.50
Student (B & C Res) $25
Bookings: the Arts Centre 1300 182 183 www.theartscentre.com.au | Ticketmaster 1300 136 166 | www.melbournefestival.com.au