DANCE: BUBBLE
PREVIEW BY AMELIA GROOM
A fusion of acrobatics, contemporary dance, contact improvisation and everyday movement, Bubble is a dark and comical exploration of the barriers we put up between ourselves and the world.
Director/choreographer Rowan Marchingo has been a member of the innovative dance company Legs on the Wall for many years, and Bubble is his first full-length piece following his transition from performer to director. It started out in 2004 as a short work that was part of Four on the Floor at Belvoir St Theatre ‘ a program that Legs run as a way for people working in the company to create and perform works in a professional context.
‘The year I did Bubble was the third Four on the Floor I’d been a part of,’ says Marchingo, ‘and I thought to myself ‘there’s a full length work in this’ – so I started to recruit my creative team and went on the trail to try and find support to create a longer piece.’
‘I’m really attracted to the world of the director because I get to use all of my skills and resources and intuition. It’s good to be able to empathise with the performer’s position ‘ and I’ve got a lot of ideas for shows, so I feel really compelled to move in that direction.’
Performed live by a three-piece band, the music is reminiscent of a circus sideshow or an old Hollywood musical, and there’s a running tribute to the slapstick appeal of cartoons like Road Runner. Rowan says he’s interested in the sinister side of the seemingly innocent humour of slapstick: ‘if you’re hitting someone and people are laughing then you think ‘I better keep hitting them,’ and where does that lead”
Dressed in bright carnivalesque costume, the show features three innocent, children-like characters in a bubble. ‘Throughout the piece they start to learn that the world is not such a nice place,’ says Rowan, ‘it’s about the barriers we build around ourselves ‘ the cyclical process: like how me getting cut off in traffic might change my world view about how other people are, and in turn change how I treat people.’
Bubble
July 23-August 2
The Studio, Sydney Opera House
Tickets: $20-$30, 9250 7777 or www.sydneyoperahouse.com
