Presented as part of Melbourne Fringe Festival, much can be said for this work, indeed an experimental dance piece, it reaches a certain level of intrigue and is for most parts an intelligent melding of the physical and the spoken word. It is a complex work, and shows a finite level of skill, the choreographic here extends beyond the body physical, with an intrinsic chorus of words co-exisiting and further to this becoming the works only backing score.
This performance comes across as almost monotone, and needs some extra ideas to be thrown into the works and bounced off. Perhaps this all boils down to personal taste, but for some audience members sitting through a dance work that for forty minutes relies on nothing more than repetitive choreography and spoken word- means it becomes nothing more than a test of endurance. Perhaps underpinning this work with a subtle soundscape or drone could be introduced as a potential remedy.
If we look at this as not a final performance outcome but aa a work in progress then this is certainly a good point from which to continue development, but it is unclear whether it’s simplicity is a deliberate thing or a result of some much needed otherness. There is scope here to go deeper into the ideas that are being explored, perhaps even introducing a counter narrative or concept to heighten the work and grant shade and in-turn foster alternate perspectives. Utterance has finished it’s season.
