I first saw Russell Maliphant’s fifteen-minute AfterLight in 2009 as part of The Spirit of Diaghilev programme—what I said then stands now, as Daniel Proietto, looking not a day older, repeats that stunning performance. Intense, concentrated flow under Michael Hulls’s imaginative lighting, he is the rose, the faun (as I said in 2009), he is the Nijinsky life force, reproducing his swirling patterns. But to see it three rows away in the small, intimate Coronet Theatre is spellbinding.
Spinning clockwise—the lighting shadows turn anticlockwise—he seems to be on a turntable, in a world of his own, aided and abetted by Satie’s dreamy Gnossiennes 1–4 (performed by Dustin Gledhill). He takes the breath away, ours and his own. Reaching towards the light, he could be a delicate, burgeoning seedling, on the ground he is the falling sycamore seed, the creatures in the undergrowth.
From red to white (Stevie Stewart simple costume design), from rose to young faun, Proietto’s own breath is taken away by the standing applause, a terrific ending to a very short evening, an hour in total, but, wow, is it worth it… Maliphant is always worth it. AfterLight won the Critics’ Circle 2010 National Dance Award for Best Modern Choreography.
The new, twice as long, thirty-minute piece, a world première, In a Landscape, sees Maliphant dance his own composition, still following his obsession with the sculpture of the body and sculptural light (Panagiotis Tomaras). Grey one-piece, grey gauze panels manipulated to create shadowy depth, stone columns, walls (crinkles in the cloth makes me think of scratched hieroglyphics), ancient classical poses, he takes his time—time immemorial.
With simple economical means—to a cinematic electronic soundscape by his life partner Dana Fouras—Maliphant celebrates the body over eons of time. In silhouette, in gentle t’ai chi moves, he flows like silk, yet holds his form like an eternal statue. He evokes classical folk dance moves, chiaroscuro paintings and daguerreotype stills. I think Eadward Muybridge. It is epic and enigmatic.
There’s an extra treat tonight—two very short films (Film One and Film Two made in collaboration with photographer Julian Broad) on a loop—in the Coronet’s studio, where you can stay as long as you like pre-show, during the interval and after the hour-long live show.
In Film One, Dana Fouras, in Stevie Stewart’s flowing black costume, spins like Loie Fuller and Isadora Duncan in one, painting abstract expressionistic canvases and flower petals, her legs and beautifully pointed feet the stamen. Again lighting plays a big part in the inkblot look. Mesmerising.
Film Two is Russell Maliphant’s solo turn defying gravity on a red bungee cord. Or maybe exploring gravity and ground work. A human mobile tightly controlled, he keeps it low, nose almost on the ground.