Spaceproject Prue Lang
The Age / Sydney Morning Herald
Dance Massive review: Spaceproject takes on infinite and minute
From beneath a small table, a dancer speaks of the “post-modern apocalypse” and “an implosion of meaning”. In her program notes, choreographer Prue Lang refers to the human body as a medium for the comprehension of space and time, a notion both mathematical and emotional.
Lang employs complex movement to edge up to these thematic ideas, drifting through a seemingly random, and yet carefully curated collection of concepts as though she is stringing beads from one hundred different necklaces on a single thread. There is a sense that Lang is toying with us – daring us to cobble together a cohesive grasp of her processes and intentions when they might be deliberately obscured.
How we find our way (and indeed, how the dancers themselves find their way) is a recurring theme in Spaceproject, explored through gestures that inscribe connected loops, shared points of contact, or navigational references such as a compass. Taking on roles as poets and philosophers through to friends bickering during a bushwalk, the dancers embody these loops, points of contact and compasses, seeking moments of engagement with the space around them.
There is something generous about the movement in this work. Dancers (Lauren Langlois, Benjamin Hancock, Amber McCartney and James Batchelor) dive into movements that seem to be drawn from inspiration as varied as the expanse of our universe, or as insignificant as a mosquito bite.
Lang was a dancer with The Forsythe Company, and there is certainly something Forsythe-esque about her integration of ideas with movement, text and sound. However, Spaceproject offers a unique exploration of ideas, and is a fine addition to Dance Massive’s investigation of contemporary dance in its many forms.
Jorden Beth Vincent