At 6pm there was a queue of people – maybe 100 – stretching half a block down Clarence Street waiting to enter the Machine Hall for the performance of Aura Mechanica by Twisted Element Company. There seemed something grunge and very urban about this style of performance event, something not seen often enough if at all in Sydney. A non descript entrance to old commercial space. A show in demand, with a following. Word of mouth. Impressive, how many independent groups achieve such an opening night?
The interior of the building was anything but grunge. The cavernous industrial Machine Hall space has had a serious makeover – it is a glam function room, only afforded by this company, and then for two back to back shows on one night one night, as part of a pro bono M.power offering for selected artists. Even then they were paid extra – staff at least, one assumes. There must be three dozen high quality function rooms in Sydney all clocking out at well over $5000 a night, out of financial reach of performing groups. How many have dreamt of using Cell Block space Darlinghust?
Pro party lights and strobes were moving and flashing as the audience entered, music throbbed in majestic volumes and speakers. Suddenly the event was more like a dance party or city club – in fact, that is what the program was, for the first half hour. A bar, unexpurgated music and chaser sequences. Young bodies rocked, sauntered, mingled. Few sat. There was no visible DJ but there could have been.
Then a few minutes after 7, without very noticeable change in music or lights, a group of six performers moved in a solemn slow fitful procession along a higher floor balustrade, down a set of stairs at one end, in a set piece of 10 minutes. The audience gradually joined in spectatorial gaze, at choreographed action. There was without doubt anticipation – the suspenseful style, contrapunctal to the fast pace of the preceding 30 minutes – ensured that was the case. This was the first of a large number of pieces, shared among 17 young female performers, all benefiting from excellent costuming. Digital light accoutrements, masks, swathes of material, skimpy skirts – the evening soon became a fashion parade, with a guide helping the audience find site lines that best see indeed allowed staging. 200 people, standing – but with help of white cubes, and ingenuity, it all seemed to work.
There seemed to be constantly cleverly crafted fluid movement items, all exploring the huge space and interacting with its audience, all optimising moving head chases and carefully crafted music. The queuing promenade motif occurred again and again, as it might be in the long high hall. Expectation was aroused. Choreographer Angela Hamilton was nothing if not confident and assured in optimising opportunities afforded by the venue.
Choreography benefited greatly from the club context, in a program that was novel and vital.
Parade? Dance party event? How to best describe its style? A nearby audience member said she felt the show was about control – that might be, especially with the masters’ declamation at the end. But however familiar the surroundings might be to the bulk of the young audience it seemed abstract. The frequent promenades, like the first, were not fulfilled in a climactic narrative; the costumed actants might remind of games actants, or anime figures, or entertainers in dance venues, but they stopped short of characterisation, just like the show stopped short of narration or meaning.
In the words of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, the program was full of patterns, rhizomic incoherent non hierarchical patterns, interweaving even writhing as bodies extended. It was dramatistic in gesturing to a larger event, a signifying field of arresting iconic shapes from which mythology or epic narrative might be signified. Narrative was promised in the show, but not apparently delivered. There were aspects of style – at times the poignant syncing of movement, music and light – that like all elements were an absorbing toolkit that should serve the Twisted Element Company and its followers well in future shows. Give the show more significance, layer it in meaning from a source outside the contemporary club wellspring that currently, however well, inspires it.
That is just one suggestion. The company of course will take it as they wish. By the way there are a precious few warehouse venues in Sydney – such as Flow Studio Camperdown – that could serve this show. The Flow studio has a raised balustrade. A low rent could mean more performers, with a more realistic sized audience.
All in all a fascinating show, in a spectacular venue – arresting yes, compelling not quite.
first printed in Sydney Arts Guide
Aura Mechanica 6 March 2006
Twisted Element co Artistic Director/Executive Producer – Angela Hamilton, Machine Hall Clarence Street Sydney
Review by Geoffrey Sykes
4 stars
