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Review / Beautiful, refined and haunting

“Fault Lines”... “Everyone in the company had experienced the quake and some had lost family, so they were all affected by it,” says choreographer Sara Brodie. Photo by Wang Jing
“Fault Lines”. Photo by Wang Jing
“Fault Lines” was created in response to the 2008, 8.0 earthquake that devastated Sichuan and the more recent earthquake in Christchurch, as a tribute to those lost and testimony to those dealing with the aftermath.

NZ choreographer Sara Brodie created “Fault Lines” for China’s Sichuan province-based Leshan Song and Dance Troupe, integrating traditional Chinese dance, Tai Chi, martial arts, ballet and contemporary dance. Brodie has choreographed to the specific skills of the artists in the troupe, who appeared to have a wide range of disciplines and skill levels. Beautiful, fluid sequences, performed as a pas de deux or by the ensemble, were interspersed with more dramatic dances.

Through effective choreography, the ensemble graphically depicted escapes, rescues, a restless crowd expressing their growing impatience and curiosity and a community attempting to deal with the disaster. However ,the dancers’ lack of synchronicity at times was a small detraction.

The gamut of emotions during and after the earthquake was demurely and gracefully portrayed. Despair, courage and an attempt to regain some form of peace and routine, under constant threat of aftershocks, were expressed against ethereal lighting on a primarily black dance space and set.

The soft, white directional lights effectively created an eerie serenity throughout the performance, which had a consistent look and feel throughout.  The feeling was further enhanced by the palette of muted greys used throughout the costuming, which worked perfectly. It also subtly implied the presence of the white dust that engulfs everything and everyone after such an event.

The striking music, composed by Gareth Farr as the performance was being put together and including a piece by Gao Ping, guided the dancers through the ebb and flow of dramatic tension. From a slow pulse, building to a crescendo, or a prolonged tension via wavering strings, or the drumming in the warrior-like piece, the rather stunning composition would not have been out of place as a movie score.

Graphics were sporadically projected, listing research, facts and phenomena about earthquakes and fault lines. Slowly, the backdrop was filled with a list of cities positioned on fault lines, Kathmandu a stark reminder, fresh in the memory, of how susceptible these cities are to major disasters.

There were some clumsy transitions and integration of elements, such as the anomaly of the randomly appearing Emperor figure, and some of the symbolism wasn’t immediately obvious. Small amounts of speech and voice, community service announcements, for example, purported to be serious, but “If in bed, stay there and put a pillow over your face” and “If near a coastline… if you can, jump out a window”, elicited giggles from the audience.

People will learn, remember, rebuild. Communities will band together and brace for whatever comes next. This was a beautiful and refined production, and a visually haunting reminder of this. And while lacking a little polish, “Fault Lines” is a poignant memorial to loved ones and to those rebuilding lives, acknowledging the extreme and unpredictable natural world and the universality of the human experience.

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Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

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