(On February 9, 2015, I watched Constanza Macras' Dorky Park troupe perform 'The Past' at Chowdiah Memorial Hall in Bangalore. It took me back to a piece I had done for The Hindu Friday Review in December 2004, when they first made contemporary dance lovers in the city sit up and take notice with 'Back to the Present' at the same venue. Here's a sharing of my take on them way back then).
CONSTANZA Macras has the power to
electrify and energize. To upend conventional notions of dance theatre. To draw
optimal output from her multi-faceted, cross-cultural artistes. To satirize
society with the precision of a Powerpoint presentation, the joy of peaking
from collective achievement.
There was no arguing with these
facets of ‘Back to the Present,’ the
Argentina-born, Berlin-based Macras’ cheeky look at reality shows and lifestyle
bytes, when her troupe ~ 2003-born Dorky
Park ~ took the stage at
Chowdiah Memorial Hall on Dec. 1, 2004, .
The prop-packed, many-tiered stage
setting had us wondering what was in store at this Asian premiere when a
curly-haired dancer of Mexican origin began to execute rather conventional
contemporary dance moves, slowly, sensuously, dramatically. Caught off guard,
within a trice, we were watching a melee of performers vaulting through an
array of doors, tripping each other while performing karaoke numbers in the
oddest positions, balancing, tilting, pirouetting, miming, surviving a series
of abysmal ‘accidents.’ At its very core was contact improvisation,
synchronized to a seeming spontaneity.
What was the point of the perfectly
orchestrated chaos with a cast originally of Australian, American, Dutch,
Mexican, Peruvian, Indian and German origin? To quote the programme notes,
Macras “takes the audience on a journey into the past ~ memory as looped
feedback, as it were. How do you recycle the stuff that never decomposes, like
love letters, flags, old props and old ideas? As history becomes increasingly
digitalized, what is the difference between storage and memory? And where do
you go when you don’t want to deal with either the past or the future?”
With its individual inputs directed
by a conceptual overview, dizzy with high-voltage performances and brilliant
costumes by Gilvan Coelho de Oliviera attuned to a spoof, this tour-de-force
overturned Indian notions of dance theatre. Those who entered with specific
ideas of Kalakshetra-style dance dramas or more established musicals had to
jettison their baggage within the first 15 minutes of ‘Back to the Present.’
For here was a performance that
took a shy at globalized notions of entertainment (especially reality TV),
urban ideas of living and loving, idioms of contemporary dance, and even
performance per se. It jolted us out
of comfort zones, handing out new lenses with which to view ourselves at a
manic, irresistible pace. It was an enchanting, challenging experience for
dance connoisseurs and laymen alike.
Macras’ show, originally performed
as a site-specific work at a derelict, abandoned, rambling early 20th
century, centrally-located department store in former east Berlin, proved
outsize in both vision and execution. It entailed the audience following the
cast from room to room as scene followed tumultuous scene.
Adapted to the proscenium stage,
the 2 ½ hour non-linear performance
offered unforgettably absurd scenes that gauge the futility of TV realism
engaged in “the flatness of everyday struggles.” Such as the madcap couple
engaged in a gluttony and karaoke contest. Or the serious-faced introduction to
the sex lives of the insect world, against the backdrop of a musical soiree. Or
even the roughhouse, seesaw battle of the sexes amidst the merry-go-round of
life, in which a kiss and a cuddle are no more potent than a sock on the jaw.
‘Back to the Present,’ characterized seamlessly by the here and now,
showcased a mind-blowing range of virtuosity, interspersed with onscreen
sequences to allow for scene shifts ~ whether as a slapstick sequence, a
warbling duet in an on-the-move relationship, couch potato combat, a take-off
on classical concerts, or a frenetic chase between improvised exits,
culminating in a madhouse fight with stuffed toys.
With frenetic movement as its only
constant, the show wove together elements of pop philosophy, visual satire,
lyric-based melodrama and over-the-top wit with perfect body dynamics to the
tune of musical hits, including ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Kal Ho Na Ho,’ the latter
rendered by Delhi-based artiste Anusha Lal. Bangalore dancer Abhilash N. stepped into the
shoes of Israel-born Nir De-Volff without missing a cue, while B.S. Arun Kumar
proved as adept at the drums as at staging deadpan interludes.
At the end of the non-stop action,
what did we take home from this premiere, sponsored by Daimler-Chrysler and Max
Mueller Bhavan? An understanding of the strong emotions generated by Macras’
workshop at Attakkalari earlier this year. A hope that ‘Back to the Present’ could
be pruned slightly for easier interface with a stationary audience. And a
fervent wish that Dorky
Park will be back in our
midst soon with another brilliant production.
