The real time it takes ...

Rosalind Crisp // Dancehouse Melbourne

In the attic studio of the dance house building, we are invited to “Please sit where you want and move wherever you want.” Also tailed at the end of this message, “while I made 23 contemporary dance pieces for the moment we extinguished 23 Australian bird species for ever.” I missed this tailing line and in retrospect (a big word to encapsulate the work) I am glad to hear this post performance.

Copyright: Lisa Roberts-2020 luckypark2017@gmail.com

The attic space is scattered with benches, cushions and a few personal pieces of Crisp’s memorabilia. On each wall there is a projection showing old works devised by Rosalind Crisp. I’m not going to lie from just seeing this I braced myself for another Melbourne 'post modern improvised work’ but I did have the understanding that Crisp is a bit of a legend in the dance scene here and gave respect to the time in which she made these pieces.

The lights dimmed and Rosalind Crisp was seen in a very internal world, moving with the support of the wall. At this point, I noticed myself passing a lot of judgement, trying hard to understand maybe more than I needed to. This went on for about 15mins and I was not particularly enjoying my time.

However, Crisp started to integrate the use of her voice; slowly with sounds trying to communicate with audience members and then words started slipping through the cracks of these sounds. Now I really started to become interested in what we were engaging with. Breaking out into the middle of the space, Crisp went into a monologue of thought accompanying her movement. Somehow the movements now made sense to me. The text and movement bind so well together, that for the rest of the piece I struggled whenever it was isolated to just one. Truly captivating, she pulled the audience into laughter and also reflection of self and the passing of time.

The piece went on to flip between projection of her past pieces, the conversation of coronavirius and how it was the first thing to make her stop (which her movement quality is definitely not in association with). The real jab of it all only came later when she started to discuss her upbringing in the bush and how ritual of returning every year for a few months to spend time with the environment of Australia. Concern and deep thought came over me as her incredible piece ‘Mt Delusion 2022’ was projected on the wall. Everything she had discussed about never looking back physically and metaphorically came to a meeting point. We all need to look back to sustain the future of self and the ecosystem.

Rosalind Crisp is a true Australian Dance legend, and I really appreciate the performance she brought to life.

Thank you //