When I start looking around for ideas for a new season I never know what the trigger will be. Sometimes necessity is the mother of great inventiveness. This time I discussed the `what to do scenario’ with the dancers, directors and the composer Gordon Mackay.
Over the years our original work has ranged from Symphony for Fun, which was great fun, Alcholism which was devastating when members of the audience confided their private tradegies in this regard. Relationships and the impact of Aids brought out a Minister of Religion who said he wished his whole congregation would see this ballet as he, had that afternoon, buried a young man whose parents were in total denial about what had happened. Life Cycle of the Spider was another riveting work that enjoyed wide audience appeal wherever we performed it.
But the one work that seems to stick in everyone’s mind Is `The Struggle’ which is to do with people seeking to get to the top and achieve power at any cost. It appears to have a universal appeal for people from very different cultural backgrounds, now more than ever with our current situation we are all facing in our country.
So for the forthcoming season I agreed to repeat the `The Struggle’ with a new and much younger cast. They threw themselves into it with a gusto I did not expect. Very nerve racking as, in part, they are working on a Style for some of the time (a style is a ladder with steps on both sides) and hanging upside down, and one of them did not have a head for heights. She does now.
But the new work which was to become `Indigenous Flowers’ was incubating in my mind. Discussing what is in my mind with the composer makes things concrete for me because in order to explain what I want of the music I must know what I want of the dance and how I will move the bodies.
Tanya as Strelitzia
And whilst our indigenous flowers are very beautiful to look at they do not have a great range of movement unless they are being battered by wind or birds and insects. That is where imagination plays an enormous role in creating a personalized way of movement for each particular specie of flower chosen. I based this on texture, colour and size. Think of the Strelitzia growing in blazing sun. Strong and showy, nothing soft and gentle about this flower, colourful in the extreme and possessing an architectural grandeur which suggests the lines the work should move along. The opening sound that Gordon has provided almost sounds like a Cape Fish Horn.
Kloey as Arum Lilly
Then think of the Arum Lily and the complexity of hundreds of tiny flowers that make up one solid looking flower. That almost inward looking, shy and gentle personality that prefers the shade and the cool areas. The music is quite abstract and unstructured and that is how I have attempted to make the dancer’s body move. Plus using the shape of the flower and the spiral in the movement.
I consider the fairy flowers of the flower kingdom to be Plectranthus and our African Waltz is gentle but strong. Because the flowers are light they have quite a lot of movement when the wind blows gently over them in their Autumn flowering period.
When I mentioned Polonaise a la africa for the Queen Proteas I received a strange look from the composer, and quickly moved on to also hearing drums and then realized I had planted the seed and I had now to wait and see what germinated in his mind. We discussed the regal way the flowers would move, their strength and the open cup shape that we would depict using the arms.
As usual along the way I added a few surprising bits and pieces which Gordon, ever patient and creative, would turn into magical musical compositions for us. Like bees and caterpillars.
Included in this program is a work for young members of the audience `The Sea Shore’ which includes dancing penguins, seagulls and crabs.
The production is due to start at the end of May into June 2016 and will be performed at the Theatre On Main Tokai. Inquiries