Moveo Dance Company recently premiered A Picture of Dorian Gray, a contemporary dance work based on Oscar Wilde’s literary masterpiece, directed by Dorian Mallia.
How far can a critique of self-obsession go, without the choreography itself becoming self-indulgent?
As the classic tale would have it, the central character is obsessed with beauty and youth. After a Faustian pact in which he wishes for his portrait to bear the signs of age and sin while he remains unblemished, Dorian Gray rushes full-throttle into a life ruled by hedonistic delight and debauchery. Although eternal beauty is held in high regard, Wilde suggests that the price one must pay for them is nothing short of self-destruction and a corrosive heart.
Mallia, along with local and international dancers Leonardo Cusinato (Italy), Alessandra Odoardi (Italy), Lucia Piquero (Spain/UK), and Diane Portelli (Malta) loosely represent the novel’s main characters. Through their expressive physicality, they bring to life the self-indulgent Dorian Gray, the manipulative Lord Henry, the infatuated Basil Hallward and the possessive Sibyl Vane.
The piece opened with Odoardi perched atop some metal scaffolding, making love to her reflection in a mirror that lies beside her. She can’t take her eyes off herself. But more than that, we can’t take our eyes off her. If she is narcissistic, we are voyeurs – all of us caught up in the seduction of surface. It was one of many striking images in the evening-length work.
The set certainly provided a visual treat. Off-kilter picture frames, loosely hung columns of gauzy fabric and differently angled mirrors enhanced the spectacle and created interesting choreographic possibilities for the dancers.
Though the set was not as effectively used as it could have been, it offered surprising moments of unsettling beauty; glimpses of fragmented bodies and strangely cast shadows that haunted me even after the performance.
Throughout the evening, the dancers drew languid brushstrokes with their bodies, using the stage as their canvas. Their movements were at times self-gratifying, at times orgiastic. Arms and legs reached out and rubbed together like mating insects. Piquero’s luscious extensions, in particular, helped paint a picture of pleasure and excess.
Mallia and Odoardi’s duet was one of the highlights. It began with an intimate intertwining of limbs – two lovers in love with being in love. By the end, though, they looked as if they are desperately trying to brush away the stains of their sins. In the smallest shifts of weight and tension, Mallia and Odoardi captured the fine line between lust and possession, sex and violence.
Though the sensual use of bodies and touch was in keeping with the novel’s themes, at one point I started to wonder: How far can a critique of self-obsession go, without the choreography itself becoming self-indulgent? Where is the line between criticism and caricature?
These questions could have been avoided with further development of the dancers’ movement palette and a deeper exploration of the text’s many layers. Still, A Picture of Dorian Gray marks an important step in Mallia’s attempt to find a new dance language, beyond the technical, symbolic or representational.
Wilde’s novel is a heady examination of what happens when self-indulgence turns into self-hatred, when narcissism descends into masochism. Translating it from page to stage is an ambitious project, not least because the choreographer’s interpretation of the novel is abstract rather than literal.
Without a definite storyline, he allows each member of the audience to engage imaginatively with the novel’s themes. In doing so he challenges the notion that dance can simply be “art for art’s sake”. He should be commended for taking this leap.