Petroglyphs - Signs of Life by Leigh Warren & Dancers
|
By Jo McDonald
Petroglyphs, the collaboration between Leigh Warren, Gina Rings and Tandanya National Indigenous Cultural Institute, is entrancing, thrilling, eerie and exhilarating. Set in the long space of Tandanya, the dancers journey through the space, moving from gallery to gallery, coming back, maintaining stillness. The audience follows, carefully staying away from the performance spaces marked out on the floor in vinyl or sand, hesitating once the dance moves away before following, tentatively at first, then all in a rush. I’d like to see Petroglyphs at least four times - three times to see the different parts of the work from various angles, and once to watch the reaction of the audience. There are many wonderful things about Petroglyphs, but the promenade style performance is for me the most alluring. As an audience member you choose where you watch from, what you watch, whether to stand, kneel or take advantage of the seats and rocks scattered around the edges of the gallery.
The performance begins with two Indigenous women singing in undulating, high, sweet voices. As they slowly travel into the space, a group female dance follows, with the dancers clad in neutral tones and multi-layered, natural fibres. And so begins what seems to be a journey as the piece covers the full gamut of emotion and physicality, from mournful to fierce, breathtakingly beautiful to wild runs and leaps. |
|
Leigh Warren & Dancers Photos: Tony Lewis |
|
|
|
There are two distinct groups – the men and women – which I assume is a reflection of the clear boundaries in Indigenous culture between men’s and women’s business. There are, though, many times that they intermingle as they continue on their travels, at times performing in mixed groups and at others, in male female pairs.
The soundscape that accompanies the movement travels as much ground as the dance. It ranges from the singing of two women who open and close the performance, to a cacophony of birds, pre-recorded music that at times is ominous, eerie, sombre, muted and contemplative, the voices of the dancers as they tell of their birthplace, and most thrilling of all, loud and vibrating vocalisations of communication and intimidation.
Petroglyphs is perfectly placed in Tandanya, surrounded by Indigenous paintings. The long space enables simultaneous performance of different parts of the work, and it was wonderful to be able to watch dancers two feet away, and behind them, see another group performing in the distance. It gave a sense of space, a sense of proximity, a sense of witnessing, rather than merely watching. The muted lighting added to the visual depth of field. I remember sitting at the end of one of the three gallery spaces, and through the empty space of that gallery, watching a group of women move in an amber light, and just beyond them, Jo Roads lit in pure white, her arms draped in the air, moving ever so slowly.
The movement itself was characterized by the grounded, earth bound style qualities of both Indigenous and contemporary dance. At times the dancers’ limbs swept through the air, at others the focus was articulate, tiny, sensitive movements of the wrists, hands and fingers. Towards the end the movement became more forceful as the dancers darted from place to place. The audience was kept on their toes as dancers ran past them, stopped and started, and generally took up space.
At the end, the cast took their bows and exited, then returned to more applause and cheers. I stood on my toes, because it wasn’t possible to give a standing ovation when we were all already standing.
|
