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The story of Faust spans culture and time with the most famous versions
told in literature by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Christopher Marlowe.
More recently, Dance North has converted this age-old morality tale into a
dance production which begins at Faust's final trial with Mephisto.
Normally based in Townsville, Dance North's tour of Faust marks the
beginning of an expansion of their following to include Brisbane and Perth
audiences. Intimate theatres such as Brisbane's Cremorne Theatre are
proving to be the most appropriate venues.
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The classic tale of Faust begins with a wealthy, well-educated young man
who becomes restless and bored with his life. In order to remedy his
tedious existence, Faust strikes a deal with Mephisto, the devil's agent,
who grants him 24 years of unconditional knowledge, power and pleasure in
exchange for his soul. The narrative closes with Faust realising that the
person he should have consulted 24 years ago was really his true self, a
being uncorrupted by the trappings of knowledge and power -- an ending
Oprah Winfrey would approve of! Perhaps more interestingly, this closure
unwittingly opens the classic structuralist/post-structuralist debate over
the existence of a pure, unmitigated self, ego. Dance North adopts a
fragmented view of the self, dividing Faust into six aspects of ego
-- Lust, Knowledge, Decadence, Overused, Greed and Antagonist.
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Unfortunately, these character traits are only evident in the printed
programme where the dancers are acknowledged with their characters. The
only identifiable personality Faust-Lust is danced in a pointedly
seductive manner by Avril Huddy. However, on reflection, the dancers are
probably not to blame for their inability to make manifest these
conceptions of self. More likely, it seems that the artistic director,
Jane Pirani, did not provide movement indicative of the dancer's
characters. This may have been achieved through the use of movement
motifs, as for example Expressions Dance Company adopt extensively.
Indeed Pirani's choreography constructs Anton as the structuralist concept
of the pure self around which the other characters revolve -- an
interpretation that is falsified by the programme which lists Anton as
Faust-Antagonist, although there is nothing in his dancing to suggest
this. The mistaken identity of Anton's character poses serious problems
for Pirani, who must decide whether or not to take the theoretical
perspective that self can be reduced to a pure form.
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Aside from these concerns, Dance North's production of Faust provides some
interesting cases for studying character identification and barriers to
the audience's ability to be drawn into a dance piece. Faust consisted of
distracting features such as poor preparation, physical appearance and
overly abstract props which perhaps made the audience resistant to being
immersed in the dance and the characters. For example, Mephisto, the
devil's sidekick (Rachelle Bliss) was the main dancer whose poor
performance produced a lack of character identification. In her opening
dance sequence, she wobbled constantly on her balances, negatively drawing
-attention away from her character portrayal to her unpolished performance.
This type of attention seeking behaviour is used often in classical
ballets such as Swan Lake with its famous 32 fouette sequence. In this
fouette sequence, an obvious display of skill breaks out of the dancer's
character, focusing on the dancer's ability. However, in Bliss's case,
drawing attention to her dancing ability or her lack of balance is highly
undesirable as it merely makes the audience resistant to her character
Mephisto. Mephisto continued this trend by walking aimlessly around the
stage with an apparently evil expression on her face, obviously unable to
find any appropriate things to do. To be fair though, Bliss's character was
not the only one at fault. For example, Victoria Hannay's (Faust-Overused) duet
with Anton was dominated by her emaciated figure, epitomising the
shapeless anorexic Balanchine dancer. The prop fans used were also quite
distracting. The connection between the electronic fans and the story of
Faust was somewhat tenuous and a little too surreal to quite work. They may
have represented Faust's soul or true self, but then Anton's character
seemed to fulfill this role well enough.
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In all, Faust has a great deal of potential and certainly exceeds many
contemporary dance companies in costuming and set designs (Joy Smith,
Robyn Winter and Andre Reynaud). Certain ex-QUT dancers have shown
remarkable growth in the maturity of their dance (notably Shannon Anderson
and Anton), but a great deal of work is needed to develop the character of
Faust. And with more polish and practice, the feeding up of certain
dancers and the engine burnouts of the electric fans, this piece will be
worth seeing again.
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Details
Faust.
Company: Dance North.
Artistic Director: Jane Pirani.
Cast: Shannon Anderson, Anton, Rachelle Bliss, Karina Dennis, Victoria Hannay, Avril Huddy, Robert Street.
Venue: Cremorne Theatre, QPAC, Brisbane, 8 Apr. 1999.
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Citation reference for this article
MLA style:
Felicity Meakins. "Slightly Wobbly: 'Faust'." M/C Reviews 27 Apr. 1999.
[your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/events/faust.html>.
Chicago style:
Felicity Meakins, "Slightly Wobbly: 'Faust'," M/C Reviews 27 Apr. 1999,
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/events/faust.html> ([your date of access]).
APA style:
Felicity Meakins. (1999) Slightly wobbly: 'Faust'. M/C Reviews 27 Apr. 1999.
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/events/faust.html> ([your date of access]).
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