Man vs. machines?

Last week, I had the opportunity to watch a performance of Contemporary Dance. Alliance Francaise had organised a festival of Contemporary Dance, bringing some of the prominent performers from France and India to the Chennai audience.

I know or have seen little of Contemporary Dance. And, having little knowledge or perhaps, interest, I did not attend most of the shows. But curiosity could possibly the only reason for my attending the show choreographed by Dominique Boivin. Wiki informs me that Boivin is a 1952 born artist from France who has moved to New York. He is considered one of the foremost choreographers and performers of Contemporary Dance.

His piece for the evening was titled Transports Exceptionnels. It was an open air show in the car park at Kalakshetra. I was surprised to see a monstrously large excavator at the centre of the car park.

Through the performance, the dancer tries to master the machine. He attempts to show his superiority over it.

 

For a while, the machine plays along and lets the dancer feel big only to finally display its true colours and responds with an aggression that overpowers and humbles the dancer.

 

Then, the dancer goes on to befriend the machine. He caresses it, seeks shelter and comfort in it and embraces it. The machine drops its aggressive demeanour and plays along.

The performance turned out to be a fine conversation between the performer and the excavator, operated very skillfully by another performer. The agility and grace of the dancer were there to be seen but in the process, the excavator too turned out to be a "feeling" machine.

That a choreographer could find inspiration in an excavator was amazing and extraordinary. I guess, that is what contemporary dance is all about - a dialogue with and about the things that one sees around you. And, one is overwhelmed by the machinery that one comes across in today's world.

It was truly, a dancer's choreographic tribute to the man vs machine debate!

If you are interested to see a similar performance done some time ago, you can click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1eWKBHXr6k&feature=related