Second festival week gets off to a furious start

In lustful exuberance

Company Wayne McGregor presents UniVerse: A Dark Crystal Odyssey at Heerlen Theatre

By Thomas Linden

We find ourselves in a storeroom of history, where ship’s tools, old symbols and insignia, as well as other items that once had meaning, are rotting away. A camera moves along the shelves, showing us details in close-up. You might think you’re sitting in a theatre, but you’re actually in a cinema with a huge screen. From the junk room, we go back even further into the past of mankind. Didn’t our species spring from the sea? In any case, we dive into the blue of the ocean, where we encounter small colourful fish whose fins float colourfully and elegantly in the current. And now we can also make out the dancing figures at the bottom of the picture, whose costumes correspond to the colours of the now enormous fish. Wayne McGregor, whom the schrit_tmacher dance festival introduced 15 years ago, has fulfilled the promise of his talent and offers a visually stunning dance spectacle with his homage to Jim Henson’s classic film ‘The Dark Crystal’ – a fantasy adventure in science fiction guise from 1982.

It is about nothing more than saving the world in the face of the omnipresent destruction of nature. However, its wounds do not appear in the 80-minute production. The title ‘UniVerse: A Dark Crrystal Odyssey’ heralds a journey that then leads through fantasy landscapes of the seabed, desert and forests. It quickly becomes clear that lighting designer Lucy Carter is something like the maître de plaisir of the evening. With a virtuoso interplay of colours, she sets the tone for this fantasy journey through the origins of Homo sapiens. The seamless composition with which visual and acoustic ideas intertwine here is incredibly impressive. Joel Cadbury’s sound amalgamated from noises finds its counterpart in the costumes of Philip Delamore and Dr Alex Box. Full-body suits consisting of shimmering colour patterns make gender disappear and react sensitively to the changing backdrop of colours and sounds.

UniVerse-Full-Bleed-photo-Andrej-Uspenski

Wayne McGregor makes use of the arsenal of effects with lustful exuberance. Ravi Deepres provides him with the material. For example, a cloud hovers over the dancers for several minutes, which later turns out to be a small forest when zoomed in, with the camera getting lost between its snow-covered tree trunks. Or a shaggy moon is enthroned above the stage, which then returns as a large eye that observes us more than just curiously in the auditorium and grows gigantically in the process. Even if all these motifs and quotes from literature, film and painting sometimes come across as an eclectic overpowering machine, you never lose the impression that Wayne McGregor always has his multimedia stimulus potential under control.

McGregor finds the images for his choreographic style right from the majestic movements of the fish. He pervades the production with a smooth flow that never surrenders to mere impulse but always remains recognisable as the result of a consciously developed aesthetic. A well-tempered restraint can be felt in every dance figure with which these bodies spread and stretch. The women and men celebrate their almost lascivious self-confidence as if they were looking at themselves with relish. Even if the repertoire of movements is not designed for new gestures, the perfection of form with which it is presented is enchanting. An ensemble of only eight, but one that knows how to fill a stage because it is able to control the space better than some companies with three times the volume. Even if Wayne McGregor’s spoken confessions about the struggle for a better world veer into healing kitsch, the expression of his ensemble remains convincingly authentic every second.

It is also the Brit’s great achievement that he succeeds in perfectly interweaving the lush media reservoir. The five women and three men dancing are not the only ones to present themselves as if from a single mould. It is not uncommon for productions in dance – but also in theatre – to fail when they use digital elements, which all too often distract attention from the physical presence of the actors. It is a wonder how smoothly the entrances and exits work in this production. The changes between scenes and cross-fades between film and dance succeed as if in a dream. Wayne McGregor is able to combine the digital with the analogue in such a way that the full force of both aggregate states is expressed. In doing so, he not only opens up new perspectives for the impact of the performing arts for himself. It almost goes without saying that the knowledgeable audience in Heerlen spontaneously gave him a standing ovation.