Episodic nature limits show’s appeal

Footnote New Zealand Dance Opera House, Wellington October 19. Reviewed by Ann Hunt.

Auckland-based choreographer, Claire O’Neil’s latest work Lifeworld (in five parts) should have great appeal for young audiences, for whom it would seem to be intended and certainly depicts.

It definitely captures aspects of urban youth’s disengagement from the world at large other than through various objects and tortuous relationships. The programme notes state that ‘‘philosopher Edmund Husserl used the term ‘Lifeworld’ to describe the world of human activity and everyday sociability. Lifeworld is our sensuous experience and perception of objects and spaces. It is beyond the world of science’’. Indeed.

The work is a collaboration between O’Neil, the six terrific Footnote dancers, composer Eden Mulholland and Jeremy Brick for filming and editing. The sombre but atmospheric lighting is by Natasha James.

Brick’s filming, which is projected onto the backdrop throughout, adds greatly to the work’s visual appeal, and, in some scenes, helps to clarify and enlarge the situations.

Dancers Jeremy Beck, Brydie Colquhoun, Emma Dellabarca, Joshua ‘‘Fale’’ Faleatua, Jared Hemopo and Lana Phillips, fill the Opera House stage with their vigorous dancing, unflagging energy and quirky humour.

O’Neil’s choreography, always inventive, is often excitingly propulsive. We are always fascinated by what is happening on stage, yet oddly disengaged.

The work’s episodic nature, with little connection between scenes, left one emotionally unconnected, the shirt chant passage being an exception. While this could be said to be intentional, there still needs to be some emotional resonances for audiences to latch onto. Otherwise, it is simply terrific dancing, but the intention is obscured.

This said, the primarily youthful audience gave them a rousing reception and seemed thoroughly chuffed as they left the theatre for Courtenay Place and what seemed like another scene from Lifeworld.