Emma Porteus: Concept, direction and choreography
Finegan Kruckemeyer: Concept and writer
By Wendy Newton
I make my way towards the Mole Creek Memorial Hall under a
full autumn moon for the second site-specific performance of Stompin’s My Heart is a Hall.
The Art Deco building is spotlighted like a Hollywood
starlet at her premiere and people spill around and into it from the cold. I’m handed my ‘admit one’ ticket and enter
the wood-panelled hall, self-consciously solo.
But in the true spirit of community, I don’t have to vie for a seat for
too long. Strangers sense my predicament
and slide along the wooden bench seat that skirts the walls, and I am invited
to sit and join them.
Dancers wait at the foot of the stage, motionless and
barefooted, half-circled by hundreds of shuttlecocks that glow with blue and
purple led lights. We wait, like
wallflowers at a community dance. The
hall waits, too, for another story to be etched into a living history where
people meet, fall in love, play, compete, survive the elements and grow old,
but mostly celebrate and share the rituals that create a sense of belonging and
kinship.
A lo-fi ambient score sets the dancers in motion as a young
man narrates the fantastical tale of an unending rainstorm that dislodges a
town hall from its foundations. Dancers
spill with the tide, languid movements that mimic the water as it rises and
peaks. Memories swirl with the waves,
bodies are objects that rock and collide and are contained in the hall. It becomes impossible to separate one from
the other: they are the hall, the church spire that pokes out from the flood,
the rowers that row the hall across the ocean until they can build a new town
around the old hall.
Solo dancer Megan Denne's sublime performance as the spirit
of the hall captivates as she uses movement and voice to translate the hall's
connection to place. Through her, we hear
the histories, glimpse the lives before, we feel the elements, the dust that holds
her foundations, as birds call and the wind rises. She is the moment, the passage of time, and it
is an intimately executed vision of character and perfect grace.
My
Heart is a Hall is a triumphant collaboration between
two master storytellers: locally loved and internationally awarded playwright
Finegan Kruckemeyer and Stompin, who continually prove how diverse, creative
and exciting they are as a contemporary youth dance ensemble.
Emma Porteus’ creative and artistic vision and direction are
at their strongest yet, and the triumph is in the dancers’ charming
performances as they contribute to the strength of the narrative and natural coherence
of the contemporary piece. The hall is set and prop, the character at the heart
of each story. Shuttlecocks rearrange as
the hall is built, moved, filled and emptied.
Lighting is minimal: four sets of floor spotlights that colour the hall
in a sequence of pink, blue, green, yellow.
Music ranges from thumping, driving drumbeats, a moody Thom Yorke piece,
the 1960's classic, Then he kissed me,
and finally to an up-tempo foot-tapping reel.
The elements are layered, lush, idiosyncratic, and it all makes sense.
It all makes for heart.
Kruckemeyer’s voice as a writer is quintessentially
Australian, sublimely poetic, and universally heartfelt. It crosses generations, time,
experience. It is a story that runs
through us, because it is the story of place.
Our place. We recognise it
immediately. Myth, storytelling, theatre and poetry weave together like a dream
that imprints and stays with us.
An older woman recounts a youthful and heart-rending memory of
waiting to be asked to dance at a local ball.
Braver dancers spin to the nostalgic tune, together, alone, in harmony with
the moment they find themselves in. A
clock ticks louder and louder while she waits, intolerably, and she feels time
flattening out her curls. When she's
finally asked to dance by someone who likes her hair, we are as elated as she
is and moved close to tears. It is a lyrical moment, rich with feeling. Kruckemeyer has taken us on a journey that has
mesmerised and meandered its gentle way deep into our hearts.
Stompin’s strength as a contemporary dance troupe is in
creating transformative experiences for dancers and audiences alike, and My Heart is a Hall is no exception. At the finale, shy dancers invite us to dance,
to leave our own imprint on the floorboards, the hall, and the performance
experience. The inspired element is in
the way Stompin continues to create unforgettable performances in extraordinary
sites without becoming formulaic. Every
performance is unique, surprising and uplifting, full of emotion that you can’t
help but feel. And we all leave a little
changed because of it.
The drive home is one that might be an echo of many before,
across time and purpose. A clear night, a joyful encounter, a chat with strangers
over a cup of tea with homemade cake (compliments of the CWA) to give breadth
to the encounter…and I have the comforting sense of sharing something with
people that I may never see again, but that has surprisingly bonded me in a new
way to a place full of heart.
