Possessed by Technology

Chunky Move - Glow

It's unnerving to have the choreographer of the show that you're seeing sit next to you. Especially when the people accompanying you usually make it quite clear and quickly whether or not they liked the show and they are not aware that the creator of the show is sitting within earshot. Such outspokenness is a good quality to have, don't get me wrong, because if a dance work is shite then, well, you can't really blame someone for saying so.

But I still would have found it an awkward situation to be in...

Thankfully Glow wasn't crap. The effect of the technology was beautiful and intriguing; and after only twenty six minutes, it didn't have enough time to get tiresome. Though despite the obvious technical ability of the soloist, her execution of the distorted and fluid movement phrases, the real showcase was her shadow. The visual tracking mechanism employed, that registered her every movement and influenced the projection beamed back onto her writhing floor-bound body, created some startling effect on her shadow that would not normally be possible. At times, her shadow would manipulate the spirograph-like loops of light that were projected onto the floor around her. Other times, the mechanism would remember her movement and leave black imprints on the floor, as if her ghostly shadow was delayed and was slowing catching up to her. Then there were times when her shadow would smear across the floor, disrupting the parallel lines that were drawn across her body. Beautiful, understated effects that have immediately obvious potential as theatrical devices.

Twenty six minutes doesn't give you much time to get bored but it can certainly leave you wanting more. It's a beautiful technology but there's certainly more scope for it to be used better. What little theatricality is shallow and unsatisfying. The speaking-in-tongues sits oddly in a show that seems primarily concerned with visual effect, though halfway through I realised that perhaps there may have been a concurrent audio feedback process happening, where the dancer's screeches were being recorded and manipulated by software, to be incorporated into the soundtrack. THAT would have been intriguing but it wasn't clear that this was happening and, if it was, it wasn't really taken far enough.

As installation art, it was sublime. As a piece of theatre, it fell quite short. The technology is extraordinary. Now it just needs to be used.

UPDATE: click here to see a snippet of Glow. Thanks to Doug Fox for the link. It was good to be reminded of just how visually striking it was to watch. Certainly something not to miss...