Australian Dance Theatre.
 "We've
created this other world which draws on ideas from an ecosystem
process to create this sense of a community," says Australian
Dance Theatre's Artistic Director Garry Stewart, talking of
their new work 'Devolution', which makes its world premiere
for this Festival. He's talking here of concepts such as aggression
and territoriality, and of ADT's collaboration with Canadian
robotics engineer and art worker Louis-Phillipe Derners, whose
robotic creatures and prosthetics are to be utilised with the
dancers of ADT to create an entirely new direction of work for
the company.
"The name 'Devolution' was something I came up with to remind us that we're still creatures and animal, subject to the whim of our bodies." A performance like 'Devolution' might well indicate new imperatives, new directions for human development, a sort of evolution in its own way, especially given the melding of robotics and dance.
"The challenge in this work was to find a real connection between the dancers and the machines, so that the machines were conceptually integral to the work, and crafted into the structure of the choreography."
From a huge 'lumbering' four limbed machine which plods onstage, to long whip-like 'tails' and a swarm of smaller creatures moving across the stage, Stewart and Derners combine their skills to integrate their artforms along with the video projection of UK artist Gina Czarnecki, all set to a music score from Melbourne based Darren Verhagen.
Louis-Philippe Derners says of the collaboration, "This is all new for me; looking at these robots and machines I design to see if they have some stage value, performance shape. Without going too far, and you cannot design them too much otherwise they turn into something that they are not."
Speaking generally of his dance company, Stewart professes delight at the way things are going and the future direction for ADT. "This work is a step up for us in terms of scale," he says candidly. "It's been a real challenge... and we've had great support from lots of people, including the Festival."
It is, I supposed, a challenge to create and perform a work that is bigger and better than that which was so highly regarded at the previous Festival, 'Held'. "Not purposely of a larger scale, it's just by virtue of the collaboration with Louis-Phillip and the size of some of his works. There's a monumentality to his work - I think this is the biggest show he's done, and I believe it's the first time he's collaborated with a dance company."
Driven by compressed air, Derner's elaborate machines are polished metallic highlights of the show in their own right, yet they are - for the most part - not extremely mobile. They're computer programmed, so that the range and scale of their movement is tightly controlled, but there is an inevitable randomness to their motion, none more so than in the case of a long stiffened 'tail' which is strapped to the body of a dancer. Such a 'whipping' prosthetic, agrees Stewart "imbues a certain degree of chaos to its movement, which we have to be aware of."
It's inevitable that people will try and draw messages from 'Devolution', from the choreography, and draw conclusions about what Stewart and his collaborators might be saying. Is it a thinly veiled critique of an automated future? Of a vision of a constricted society? Nothing quite so sinister...
"Primarily when I was looking at Louis-Phillipe's robotics they conjured images of animals, even though he may not intend it. Like any object that moves autonomously we imbue it with certain sociological and psychological qualities. As soon as they start moving we interpret them through our own understanding; we start giving them character. So these things that are just machines seem to take on more."
It's a notion Derners had considered very early on, the temptation to look at his work as automated creatures, given the mechanics of limbs and motion, of articulation.
"As soon as you put two things together with a hinge it begins to look like a knee, or whatever," he suggests, "so anthropomorphism comes really really fast. The initial intent is never to mimic or recreate... an existing organism. I'm more interested in quite neutral shapes - as free as possible from connotation."
Perhaps the best way of looking at 'Devolution' is to assume we're seeing an ecosystem we've never seen before, populated with creatures (both organic and inorganic) for which we have no specific point of reference. It all requires a leap of faith.
When discussing his bigger robotic creations, which are quite clumsy in their movement - one carefully lumbers across the stage on platform legs - Derners quite naturally describes them to me as 'like dinosaurs'. It's clear he and Garry Stewart view this a glimpse of a whole new world.
Alex Wheaton
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ADT present 'Devolution' at Her Majesty's Theatre from Fri 3 March, proudly presented by dB Magazine.
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