Anna Marie Galea catches up with choreographer and dancer Brandon Shaw, ahead of his reworking of the classic tale of David and Goliath into a modern day choreography.
When I was about six years old, I was ill, bedridden and bored stiff for more than two weeks. Not really knowing what to do with me, my mother had thrust a children’s book of bible stories in my general direction and probably prayed that boredom would take care of the rest. And, in fact, it did.
Despite the fact that I was probably hallucinating for the better part of those two weeks, I did manage to consume the entire book in a few sittings and one of my favorite stories was that of David and Goliath. At the time, I was mostly fascinated by what David could achieve despite his age and stature. Today, the story is set to take a different dimension thanks to Brandon Shaw’s Sticks and Stones.
So what inspired him to take up the mantle of this renowned Old Testament story and seek to rework it?
“For me, the story itself operates on a lot of different levels. Ultimately, David and Goliath is not a story of two individuals who dislike each other but of two nations that are fighting each other. When I think of David and Goliath, I always think of the story of The Fox and the Hound where you had two animals pitted against each other and who were meant to be enemies... yet, they were friends. There is this sense of being enemies for no reason other than being born at different ends of the battlefield. At the beginning of Sticks and Stones, David and Goliath are friends.”
Eager to marry together different themes for the audience to interpret and make their own, Brandon stresses how bullying is integrated into the Sticks and Stones framework.
“Due to his huge size, it is almost as if Goliath is born to play the part of the mean bully who is able to assert himself over others. However, there is much more than meets the eye, as David learns how to use his slight frame to his advantage. The reality is that the bigger you are, the greater and harder the fall. No one is ever completely bad or completely good. It all depends upon the angle from which you’re observing them.”
In order to both emphasise and bring to light the latter point, Brandon opted to infuse the piece’s choreography with Tai Chi, a martial art which is centred around balancing the dark and light in oneself so that opposites are co-contained.
“It is a characteristic of all bullies to assert strength and power over their victims, a strength which tends to stem from their own weakness and pain. On the other hand, the bullied gains strength from his experience of being victimised by another. David learns a lot about how to wield his own brand of strength from watching Goliath and exploiting Goliath’s movements, thus the bullied becomes the bully. I think that this is an excellent parallel for the situation between Israel and Palestine at the moment.”
While the Palestinian and Israeli situation was the springboard for Sticks and Stones, Brandon’s piece touches on the aspects of wrong acts, misogyny, nation forming, and homophobia.
“Some people may be surprised to see that David is going to be played by a woman, but the fact is that throughout history, David has always been portrayed in a soft, almost curvaceous, way. Caravaggio’s David was reportedly inspired by Caravaggio’s young male lover and Donatello’s David was considered to be scandalous by the society of the day because he looked so feminine. David’s choreography will be in sevens and Goliath’s will be in nines, instead of the traditional eights favoured by the West.”
Brandon has chosen to focus on the message rather than the set. “This piece is 100 per cent portable, low budget and basically self-cleaning. The beats will be made through the rawness of percussion. I wanted to show the effectiveness of slamming a stick to convey anger and that anger itself does not have to have negative associations. After all, anger can even show love.”
Brandon explains how Sticks and Stones “became personal when we started to relate our individual experiences to it. While I am tall, Shanon Deguara (who will play David) is quite diminutive and this makes a difference in the way we spatially occupy the world and perceive it. Despite our different heights, both Shanon and I experienced bullying when we were younger. What I hope for our audience is that they will be able to apply their own viewpoints to what they are seeing and mould the work to fit their own experiences.”
Sticks and Stones takes place on Saturday at 8.30pm, 10.30pm and 00.30am at Spot C, St James Cavalier, Valletta (at the St James Cavalier main entrance). The event is held in collaboration with Notte Bianca.