Trois Generations

Two Western Australian companies, Strut and Steps, have united to give us Trois Générations, a much-admired work by French choreographer Jean Claude Gallotta. To present the piece, they had to acquire a third ensemble, made up of older dancers. This third group has no name yet, but I hope they will continue to work together. Older performing artists have much to contribute, something that until recently has not been acknowledged in the dance world.

The choreography develops certain themes and moves over the three sections, each one using the talents of eight dancers. There are duos, trios and small groups as well as ensemble work, and each individual gets a chance to shine.

The children bring to the choreography the innocent enthusiasm of the very young, together with a technical skill that is surprisingly well-developed for their age group. The Strut dancers, in the second section, give the steps an added assurance that comes of having learnt not only a technique but also how to use it.

Gallotta says that older dancers are more serene: they move more slowly and transform the sensuality of younger bodies into tenderness, and that is exactly what the third group did. I was deeply touched to see people I’d seen dancing in their prime, some of whom had been my own tutors, dancing again with older bodies, heavier in many cases. The jumps were not as high or the stretches as elastic as they were 30 years ago, but the performers were no less moving for all that. A stroke of genius was having this group dance a short section in silence. It grounded the audience and demonstrated how genuinely light on their feet these older dancers are.

The whole piece is cleverly constructed and very beautiful to watch, although I would have preferred, I think, to have had the three groups clad in different colours. However, Gallotta is on record as saying that he felt the all-black costuming gave the work a certain simplicity, black being the colour of the Greek tragedies, the theatre, and the arts. I suspect it boils down to taste in the end: some people will agree with Gallotta: others, like me, may not. Changes of colour might have emphasised the differing energies of the three groups and given the audience a more interesting visual experience. I must admit that I experienced a slight touch of mid-show ennui as the black-clad figures, despite their differing physiques, started to blur into a dark cloud of shapes.

After the performance we were invited to join in a class that taught some of the choreography to pairs made up of dancers and audience. It was wonderful to see the spirit of fun this elicited!

Rating: 4 stars out of 5