Glow.

DANCE.
A 2010 oldie.  Gideon Orbarzanek's Glow @ The Seymour Centre.

A phenomenal chemical reaction fused technology and human body as one in Gideon Obarzanek’s re-staged work, Glow. We saw dancer Sara Black engaging with a digital landscape generated in response to her movement - morphing through creature-like beings, bathing in light and ever changing patterns of lines.

An intimate space. An intimate square space. An intimate square space geometrically divided generated this extremely heightened sensory experience.

Literally glowing, Black mapped out the confines of the space. Crawling, squirming and extending her beautifully toned limbs, she was at one with the silhouettes, shadows and outlines that followed and mimicked her. Playfully ever-changing, the space was carved up by linear light and movement, simultaneously shifting through the stages of the performance and moods created. An arithmetical drawing emerged in front of us, with moments of paint splashed around in highlighted movement. In seamless transition the sensuous body demanded the technology’s reaction then opposed the technology’s imposition on the body - an eerie play of power.

                       

The body formed rounded shapes, wrapping up the limbs within it, before lengthening out and arching in isolated motions. A cocoon, then a butterfly. The movements were fleeting, fading with the light, transforming to become a new thing. Thing. For she was technology. Technology was she. Erratic and desperate noises escaped her lips as they burst from the seams of her internal creatures. Quivering limbs gave way to strong, straight and rhythmic kicking, a shape shifter before our eyes. The music, an elaborate soundscape, formulated a clever pathway for these organisms to travel.

A powerful section emerged from silence as the body squirmed, seemingly possessed by demon-like shadows entering Black’s body. In discomfort we experienced a monster growling, reaching and desperate, banishing the shadows from within. Here horror was at play, aided solely by the miraculous use of technology. In a frantic and pulsating state we felt the swirling, melting and contracting. The performance offered an eerie connection to what was happening in that intimate square space.

Breath - leaving the contracting and arching body. She stepped aside, leaving her white shadow, a mirroring ghost of herself that slowly flooded the square environment - drowning her – then melted to a miniscule dot. A flash. And darkness.

Credit must be given to all involved, a true act of collaboration between Gideon Obarzanek (concept and choreography), Frieder Weiss (Interactive System Design), Luke Smiles (Music and Sound Design), Paula Levis (Costume Design), Kristy Ayre (Rehearsal Director), and Nick Roux (Multimedia Operator), along with dancers Sara Black and Harriet Ritchie in alternating performances.

xox