A bit of Culture! Touch Compass Dancers are amazing.

1/7/12   Darlings, it’s July already!

Last night Handsome Rob and I went and saw  Touch Compass perform Run, Slip, Spring.  Touch Compass, a professional mixed ability dance company,  are also celebrating 15 years of performing. My friend, Suzanne Cowan, is one of the dancers in the second ‘chapter’ (Slip). I love it. My heart is pounding really hard; I am bewitched by movement, as if the dancing somehow interprets the wordless, divine state. You know I’m a words girl, but this makes me want to slide across the stage on my belly wearing purple tights.

 A small excerpt from Run, with Daniel King and Melanie Turner.

The first part is so rich, there’s a lot of dressing, undressing and I take it to mean we’re all playing games with perception and identity. In the end, they’re all wearing the same thing; there is pressure to conform to one idea, one uniform, and one standard.  This is particularly powerful when you’re looking at a variety of people with varying physical ability.  I find it mesmerizing.  I’m not so sure about the woman who comes out and sings. She’s got a great voice, it’s true, but it feels a bit Christian or something. Do you know what I mean? She’s this very attractive blonde decked out in black velvet and heels (which would be cool if she suddenly whipped them off) and she sings like she’s in a conservative club for discerning gentlemen, or about to win Australian Idol. So yeah, most of the audience would like it.

This is another snippet from Run.

 I've got my camera out and am filming little snippets when possible, but the Indian man next to me has a big, clumsy, noisy ‘real’ filming camera. It keeps beeping. In the end a lighting guy comes and tells us not to film or take photos as the light is really distracting for people. Oh pooh, I didn't get very good footage of Suzanne. Strangely, after we've already been told off, a lady behind us leans forward and tells the Indian man off again. She's all white, middle aged and righteous.

He sneakily tries to keep filming and I nudge him and say

“You’re gonna get in trouble”. I’m in a good mood.

Poor quality film sorry. That's Suzanne on the bottom right, with a ponytail.

 Part two, Slip, is really industrial, the movements are jerky, the theme seems to be about almost reaching a goal, but then having something jerk you back again. Suzanne races around in her wheelchair like a possessed automaton, and in contrast to Run, there is minimal light and colour.  It feels intense. The struggle established in Run continues, an interplay of embraces and graceful fights. Everyone seems separate, and then they are entwined, pushing, holding, fighting, or surrendering to one another.

Part three, Spring, involves aerial bungee and feels really playful. Man, I want to have a go on the aerial bungee. There are two dancers in this part that I know, Matt Gibbons (of long ago, in the days of the 398 Warehouse) and Sarah Houbolt. Sarah was in a cabaret production that I reviewed for Theatreview a few years ago. Wished I could have filmed some of this, but I’m sure their website will eventually have footage: http://www.touchcompass.org.nz/productions

Spring feels light and free. There’s humour and play between the male and female dancers that feels challenging and sexy. I love it when Alisha McLennan flies out over us like an angel thanks to the bungee cord. I’m sitting really close and it was a moment of real joy. Matt moves as if through water at times, watching him with Sarah is beautiful. It culminates with Matt and Sarah in a seamless embrace, spinning on the cords, suspended a few feet above the stage. The other couple (Alisha and Adrian Smith) is also spinning above the stage, their bodies are held away from each other. My eyes are drawn to the close embrace, the efficiency of the spinning, the way Sarah’s tiny body is enveloped in Matt’s large frame.

Suzanne is a talented dancer and inspiring beast of love.

Afterwards it was time to congratulate Suzanne and have a few drinks. Matt came and said hi, he knows Rob too, so it was another one of those ‘oh Auckland, aren’t you adorable’ moments. Matt hasn’t changed, other than being more muscled than he was 20 years ago! He’s making a film on something to do with drugs and self discovery, so that’ll be interesting.

Today, off to visit me ma! Oh, and yesterday I did heaps on tidying my room. Toscat is very impressed.

 Love  to you all

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