Dance Theatre / I am Falling
In the UK, I do not think we have a culture of dance theatre. We have dance. Some of it has narrative. We have theatre. Some of it has dance and is physical.
Dance theatre suggests that in this form neither the dance nor the theatre have primacy. A balance.
When I hear dance theatre, I think of Tanztheater and I think of Wuppertal and Pina Bausch. I think it is perhaps a German form most of all, I guess you could say it is a cousin to expressionist dance.
I understand the language of modern dance poorly but can glimpse and be moved by them. So, really a few performances of Pina Bausch is all I have to draw upon in the world of dance theatre.
The Gate’s I am Falling (Carrie Cracknell directing, Anna Williams as choreographer and Garance Marneur as designer) has echoes of Bausch to me. An intimate form. However, whereas Bausch tends to be absurd, occasionally disjointed, more sudden, less steady in tempo – I am Falling is more continuous, more narrative, simpler, starker, more intimate.
The story is simple: the life, death and love of two parents seen partially from the point of view of the child who can not quite penetrate his parents relationship. The effort to find a dance form to tell that story adds layers of complexity and visceral feeling.
The dance and theatre are not equal at all times. Some times the dance dominates, some times the narrative. Occasionally, for me, I found the dance so mesmorising that I lost the threads of the story. Perhaps that means the dancing was ultimately more compelling. I’m not sure.
I did long for more micro-moments of stillness. The movements were like a constant stream and my mind would have liked a few more places where I could appreciate the tableux but that’ just me and perhaps the tapestery would have been weaker for it. I also wanted to see more feet. Perhaps, that’s just a fetish but dancers feet tell their own story and between audiences’ heads I lost that tale of feet.
It is an intense and intimate 40 minutes and if you go in with a mind to understand how dance and theatre can intertwine in their own pas de deux and be absorbed by it, you’ll like it. If you only like straightforward theatre and dance drives you crazy, this may not be for you. But go and see it anyway, it might be good for your soul.
PS Pina Bausch is coming to Sadler’s Wells this year and performing herself. Catch it while you can! This clip of Café Müller (seen also in Almovodar’s Talk to Her) is one of the most moving dance pieces I have seen.
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About me
I'm a playwright and investment analyst. I have a broad range of interests: food, gardening, innovation & intellectual property, sustainability, architecture & design, writing and the arts. I sit on the board of Talawa Theatre Company and advise a CIS investment trust on socially responsible investments.
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Recent Work
Recent plays include, for theatre: Nakamitsu, Yellow Gentlemen, Lost in Peru, Lemon Love. For radio: Places in Between (R4), Patent Breaking Life Saving (WS).
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Nakamitsu
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Yellow Gentlemen
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