Image: Courtesy MetroArts
Women’s struggles through time – the fight for equality, the search for identity, the complexities of our relationships with our own bodies and our relationships with other women – drive the key stories behind this latest work from Brisbane-based choreographer Claire Marshall.
Marshall – who has made a name for herself with an ‘unconventional’ but highly entertaining approach that has seen her become a popular choice to work on music videos for numerous artists around the country – has produced a contemporary work that encourages conversation beyond the stage.
The idea for Flaunt came while she was researching her own family history and got to thinking about the lives her fore-mothers were living at different stages of our human timeline.
However, concerns that this performance is merely a gender studies lecture set to music can be dismissed out of hand – despite the fact that is does attempt to shoehorn more themes than it can perhaps adequately explore.
While some of those overarching themes can be quite controversial. Marshall wants us to question the way some women put forward particular versions of themselves on social media – a discussion that can traverse concerns of freedom, modesty, sexuality and personal expression – there’s a humour imbued throughout the performance as well.
This is a return season for the work , having staged a successful showing back in 2014 as part of creative development program SWEET at the Brisbane Powerhouse.
This time the small space of the Sue Benner Theatre in the Metro Arts Theatre was the venue that showcased the wonderfully realised and innovative set design.
A jungle gym type construction engulfs the stage – a ‘glass ceiling’ for the dancers to contend with through various eras and personas – be it repressed housewives, disco divas or power-suited career women.
The clever way the performance switches between the time zones is also notable. The dancers physically rolled back the floor of the ‘night club’ to quickly denote the new scene.
As Flaunt is more concerned with storytelling and packing in as many ideas as possible in the relatively short time of an hour, you mostly forgive the fact that at times the execution was not quite there in some instances; with some precision of movement and timing not always hitting the mark.
However, the dancers (Essie Horn, Courtney Scheu and Amelia Stokes) did a wonderful job overall in demanding roles; they were expressive, strong and athletic and had to be in order to fully engage with their set – which in a wonder metaphor included climbing the literal glass ceiling.
Clever, well-crafted but perhaps a little too compact Flaunt is still an entertaining and welcomingly female-focused work that provides a good springboard for discussion on women’s changing place in society.
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars
Director/Choreographer: Claire Marshall
Cast: Essie Horn, Courtney Scheu, Amelia Stokes
Set Design: Frances Hannaway
Lighting Design: Michael Richardson
Dramaturgy: David Fenton
2016 QUEENSLAND TOUR: Cairns: Centre of Contemporary Arts, April 22-23 at 7.30pm. Toowoomba: Empire Theatre, Armitage Centre – Heritage Bank Auditorium, May 13 at 7.30pm. Ipswich: Ipswich Civic Centre, May 27 at 7.30pm
Flaunt was produced by Metro Arts and played between April 13-16.
