Rankefod: the wonder of it all
There was a rush of darkness and sound to welcome us in to the primordial soup and then….
A First Back appeared – and the wonder of it all !! A clavicular face !! Awash in light in the bottom corner of a gigantic back drop. An engulfing appliqué notion of decay, of mountain ranges, shimmering. Subdued. Earthen ground.
Shoulder blades and spine a fascinating frame for hands, hands an angular accent for the rising and falling of musculature.
There followed 45 minutes of impeccable, animaline embodiments, technically difficult poses and surprising movement: Angular, jittery, stacatto but never uncomfortable bugs; a lion’s fiercely alert gaze -- imperturbable, penetrating the audience; I could almost see the shimmering thick muscular fat and shag of silver hair on the mountain gorilla as it walked….
Such is the possibility latent in the human form -- the body’s evolutionary memory -- directed, manipulated. When a two armed, two legged torso becomes a single arm and leg ------streamlined, balanced, evocative -- you know you are in the presence of a master.
And all this while hardly breaking a sweat. Made to look easy. Interplaying with a soundscape built from synthesized organic sounds.
A flat affect was held until finally, at the end, the human embodied looked at their own hand and, self-conscious for the first time, looked back to the back drop longingly – a hint perhaps at the cyclical nature of life… demonstrating our longing for return to paradise?
