Choreographed by Serge Bennathan
A Danceworks Presentation
at the Enwave Theatre
November 22-24, 2007

   Manga is the name for Japanese comic books that exist in different forms. Manga are popular with children and adults who prefer their reading material to be primarily visual, episodic, and with a sense of vivid action. Some manga deal in science fiction, some in Japanese traditions of drawing, some with romance, history, sport, and comedy, and some in porn. Serge Bennathan, who is French (the French have a long tradition of comic books), was drawn to the genre because it is one where movement is continuous, and, as choreographer, he was interested in determining how to have continuity even in stillness. His new (60-minute) dance piece is inspired by manga, though it is not really about that foreign form. Instead, it is a duet for Susie Burpee and Linnea Swan, and one that is a definite advance on Absences, Bennathan’s 2006 creation for Dancemakers. That earlier piece was about memories that compel fear, tenderness, tension, and resignation. It was an ensemble ballet for eight, freighted with modernist gestures and vocabulary, with movement being often contrapuntal to Bertrand Chenier’s music. However, there was no central focal figure, and the patterns, very privately coded, sometimes seemed too casual or too vague in meaning. Manga, however, has a raw intensity, and the two dancers transform the choreography (which also mixes classical dance steps with modernist movement) into a continuous sequence of variations and repetitions.

   Within Jay Gower Taylor’s environmental space resembling a three-sided black box, lit with top lights and pink floor lamps by James Proudfoot, the piece begins with the tension of poised stillness, as the two dancers pose like tree trunks with outstretched branches. However, this stillness is transformed into animal motion as the duo scrabbles sideways and marks an especial tension by pushing against each other, head to head. Legs are used for propulsion and arms for strength in balancing. Linnea Swan’s long arms resemble tentacles on the floor, with compact Susie Burpee’s body tumbling in ¾ spins. Where Ms. Swan is grace in stillness, Ms. Burpee undertakes peculiar twitches and steps. The interactive dynamic is that of reaching, grasping, pulling, and impressing handprints on the floor. Ports de bras, arabesques, and closed foot positions from ballet mingle with modernist movements, highlighted in one remarkable sequence when Ms. Burpee’s one trembling leg evolves into a total body vibration. Evidently inspired by a particular kind of manga that uses cinematic techniques, Serge Bennathan evokes the sense of continuous movement by zooming in and out of sequences. His choreography lets the dancers down in a late sequence, where it requires them to run in circles and then collapse from the hectic pace and strain. This is too clichéd for such impressively versatile dancers. However, it is a single lapse, and the rest of the dance is strenuous, bold, vivid, and often poetic.

Pic 1: Serge Bennathan (photo: Jeremy Mimnagh

Pic 2: Susie Burpee and Linnea Swan (rear) in rehearsal (photo: Ella Cooper)

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