Yesterday Elizabeth Streb’s action hero dancers from Brooklyn took over the monuments of London, working their way over from the
City in the early morning to a spectacular finale on the London Eye late at
night. The bits I managed to see – the Human Fountain in Trafalgar Square and
the Speed Angels outside the National Theatre – were astonishing. However (and
I want to get this out of the way first) the decision to brand the whole event
as a ‘surprise’, meaning that even the date was kept a secret until the very
last minute, and the locations and times of each performance were only revealed
about half an hour beforehand, was a poor one.
Like many others, I read about Streb in the Evening Standard
some weeks ago – death-defying dance stunts performed outdoors, one day this summer, free across London - and it leapt out to me among the Cultural Olympiad
events as something I really wanted to see. I was slightly confused by the lack
of any date mentioned, but assumed this was down to last-minute organisational
issues. When I realised that this was in fact an intentional part of the event
itself,I assumed that it would at least be essential to the performances.
What happened in the end was this. Halfway through Sunday,
with other commitments and plans in place, I realised on Twitter that the ‘One
Extraordinary Day’ was now happening, and more than half over. In a rush, not ideal
with a toddler in tow, I legged it down to Trafalgar Square in time to catch most
of Human Fountain. A four-storey rig stood in front of Nelson’s column with
platforms on three levels, and on these were a multitude of figures in bright
red bodysuits, flinging themselves from the platforms in a variety of poses and
combinations, landing on the floor with an almighty crash, then picking
themselves up to run back, clamber up the side and do the same again. Over and
over, red bodies falling, flinging, scrambling, crashing, an astonishing show
of bravery pushing at the limits of human endurance. At times verging on
difficult to watch,but more difficult to turn away from. Streb’s dancing is less
gendered than any dance I’ve seen, with strong, muscular women and men performing
the same incredible moves.
Afterwards, I guessed that the next performance would be
somewhere towards the South Bank, reasoning that they’d been moving westwards
throughout the day, and it was obvious where the last event, ‘The Human Eye’, would be.
Hopefully I meandered down Northumberland Avenue and across the bridge at
Embankment, eventually finding the embryonic event at the National
Theatre, where a very very tall structure was being set up in the outside
space. We camped out on a step, subsisting on very tasty hot
dogs from the van parked nearby, and by 8pm had been in our almost front-row
seats for over an hour when three dancers in vivid red came out. Streb has been quoted as saying that music is the enemy of dance but the soundscape here
really added to the atmosphere. The dancer in the middle looked terrified as
she was attached to her harness.
Then they were winched into the air, where they sometimes
posed like trapeze artists, sometimes flailed like puppets, up and down,
sprawling red figures against a sky which turned from grey to white-scattered
blue as the evening wore on and the sun lit the buildings. Planes and
helicopters and birds flew past, seeming almost to touch the three red human marionettes
who squirmed on their strings. Some of it seemed tightly choreographed –
presumably it all was – but at other times they appeared lost, helpless, and chaotic, snatching at the air as their feet cycled madly.
It was a great, eerie, performance, and I would have loved
to stay for the late show, the undoubted masterpiece, but starting at 10.30pm
with a one-year-old and no chance to plan in advance, it was off the cards. At
least I got to see some of it, unlike the writers of the plangent messages on
Twitter and Facebook, begging for a bit of notice to give them a fighting
chance of getting there on time. The refusal to do that, to help out those who
were desperate to see it with the basic information about when and where, just
seems like a perverse way to treat your potential audience.
I can see the idea
in theory, that this was a shocking series of events where superhuman figures
suddenly appeared out of nowhere, leaping across the monuments of London, but
in practice it can’t work like this. In practice there are many people there
for a long time in advance, rigging, planning, putting up crowd barriers, not
to mention all of those ‘in the know’, the press, those who’ve just blundered
along. By the time the event starts it’s very obvious indeed that it is about
to happen – indeed there are huge banners proclaiming ‘Surprises Streb’ all
around.
So it’s hardly an instantaneous
appearance, just a needless annoyance which makes it impossible for those with
prior commitments to work, family or anything else to attend this
once-in-a-lifetime event. Even worse, it makes it truly impossible for those
with disabilities who need additional time to plan and make their journeys. Instead,
this favours those who can drop everything in an instant, the
able-bodied, the rich (who can jump in cabs, and probably know what’s happening
weeks in advance anyway), tourists, and random passers-by who might well enjoy
it, but not as much as those who would really have loved to see it and would
have made the effort, if only they’d had the chance. Videos here and Guardian picture gallery here
Sorry that so much of this review is about the logistics rather than the performances, but art happens in the real world where people live. (And unlike all the Proper Reviewers, so do I.) In short, this is an amazing dance/action company whose
performances stand up on their own merit and they don’t need gimmicks like this
to impress anyone.
Speaking to one of the volunteers apparently the police had asked they only give 45mins notice because of security/crowd control even tho the organisers wer ebegging for more time to announce! I also saw the NT one and was spectacular!
ReplyDeleteHiya, thanks for the comment. Glad you also enjoyed the performance. I'm sure the volunteers would have liked to announce earlier (the ones I spoke to were really helpful) but the decision to keep all of the details secret in a big way would have been taken a long time ago, in the early stages of planning. If you look through the Cultural Olympiad brochure, it's the only event in there without date/time/location.
DeleteI saw a couple of videos of the morning events (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-hIepVNjKc ) and there was hardly anyone there, I think they deserved a bigger audience!