© Dirk Buwalda 'Merryland' reviews Madsen in reviews recent NDT reviews more Buchanan reviews

Premiering in November 2001, “Merryland” is NDT III’s first collaboration with the Australian-born choreographer Meryl Tankard, who began her career in 1975 as a member of the Australian Ballet Company. She was subsequently principal soloist with the Pina Bausch Wuppertal Tanztheater, and in 1993 became artistic director of the Australian Dance Theatre. Tankard’s work is renowned for its physicality and multi-faceted artistic quality. NDT III is famous for its top quality performers of 40 plus years. This combination was intriguing from the outset, and the evening looked set to be inspiringly innovative.

The red curtain with ballerinas and trees projected onto it transformed to a gradated wash of colour. As the enlarged silhouette of a man faded, a close-up of a pair of wringing hands became apparent. The shadow grew in size, causing the audience to laugh. When the strains of oriental music began, the woman’s hands began to caress her body. A succession of silhouettes then followed, along with repetitious hand gestures. It was as if the audience were gradually being introduced to each of the four dancers, and a sense of togetherness was established when the dancers’ shadows merged into one other. A man walking an imaginary tightrope (an allusion to David Krügel’s circus training) retreated upstage, and as the music quickened, a landscape from a speeding train became the moving backdrop. Images waxed and waned, and then the first contact was made. A female was swirled around in the arms of a male. A large rabbit-eared man slowly came into view, and a veiled bride began to pray on her knees. Krügel re-emerged as the tightrope walker, and was soon followed by groups performing pedestrian actions and gestures; kneeling, walking, talking, pointing… A fairground wheel of colourful light began to turn, and someone walked past balancing a pot on their head. As yet, we had not seen anything other than projections on projections, silhouettes and amazing lighting effects. It seemed to be a clever way of introducing the ‘shadows’ (distant memories) of the dancers’ lives. There were moments of abandon, and a female quivering repeatedly. Limbs separated to become two hands flying in the shape of a bird that made its way across a cloudy sky. This was mind games at its best; the endless symbols began to inspire different memories in each of the spectators.

Sabine Kupferberg in 'Merryland' photographer Dirk Buwalda

Joining hands, the quartet united physically and were visible in the flesh at last. The audience was subsequently led through a series of personal moments from the dancers’ photograph albums. This proved to be the most amusing section of the piece, in which the dancers held various comical poses and exclaimed; “My first pink bathing suit!”, “My best friends”, “My first communion”, “Me as the Easter bunny!”, and more…. The dancers’ strange choice of costumes also began to make sense, as these personal milestones and occasions were illuminated.

The 1970s disco era was humorously parodied, with all four dancers clad in velvet suits performing Travolta-type ‘night fevers’. Technique classes with a lone ballet dancer ensued, accompanied by voice-overs commanding; “Drop your weight… Up with your focus… Move from your centre… Try to relax…” All four dancers returned to stage performing what seemed to be a clip from the musical “Fame”. “This is after all a dance academy, not a sanatorium!” yelled the instructor. Sincerity was mixed with its opposite when dancers were discussed: “there’s something about you… you touched me deeply… perform your port de bras as if your arms were in sticky honey… the last thing the public see is what they will remember…” These anecdotes were clearly drawn from the dancers’ own experiences. The audience began to snigger at the superficiality of a dancer’s world. And yet there was something ever so tragic about that ageing male chasséeing diagonally across the stage, only to receive incessant verbal correction…

One of the weaker sections of the piece was the tarzan-come-cheetah dance by Krügel, complete with furry loincloth. This was, however, countered by a hilarious recital of various NDT III reviews: “People say we are fantastic… People say we are full of grace… People say we are the crème de la crème… The New York Times said we were rubbish… People say why?” The way in which this positive and negative material was woven into the dance was certainly inventive.

Postmodern fragments of Bavarian, Swing, and 1960s music continued, with flashbacks from the performers’ lives arising from the deliberately choreographed chaos. The multi-lingual approach added to the piece’s complexity at this stage, but there was no real need to grasp the meaning of a particular spoken phrase. Verbal and non-verbal language amalgamated seamlessly to great effect.

When the four dancers swivelled across the stage engulfed in gigantic paper cones (holding fake cone partners at the end of their poles), the audience finally collapsed into fits of laughter. On closer inspection, the partners’ faces bore photographs of several choreographers from the “Steps” festival. Was this intended as a curtain call for these artists working behind the scenes? This would have been an excellent finale, but evidently Tankard still had something

Meryl Tankard's Merryland for NDT III photographer Dirk Buwalda

to say. Images from the initial sections of the dance were brought back and reworked. At one point, for example, the same movement content of a duo was skilfully set against a filmed backdrop that had not been shown before.

The repetitive final soliloquy by Egon Madsen did, nevertheless, became tedious due to its arm-oriented vocabulary. I longed for leaps, turns and spectacular falls. This predominantly theatrical climax was lost on me. When the bird image reappeared with dramatic music, the piece drew to a close. House lights suddenly went up, and an advert for sunscreen began to be played (“Everybody’s free (to wear sunscreen)…”), while all the photos of the dancers as children and young adults were projected onto the backdrop. “Oohs!” and “Aahs!” resounded throughout the theatre, as the audience recognised snapshots of live action from the dance. It was a fitting conclusion to an interesting piece, as it provided a gratifying insight into the creative origins of the general movement content.

Meryl’s “Merryland” must be experienced first-hand to be fully appreciated. A written review cannot even begin to communicate the special effects, nor the depth of choreographic thinking and artistry that were an integral component of the piece. Yes, certain sections were a little long, but the whole was truly a light-hearted inspiration to audiences of all tastes, dance experiences, and ages!