Set in the enchanting venue of Fort St Elmo, Moveo Dance Company recently presented their latest work, D.O.K., as part of the Malta Arts Festival. Review by Stefanelle Cachia.

D.O.K. was an interdisciplinary performance that combined dance, live music by the cellist Simon Abdilla and live opera singing by soprano Miriam Cauchi. The performance opened with an eerie atmosphere, a prefect combination of smoke and a cool sea breeze and a haunting voice coming from within the chapel. The combination of three factors – the bodiless voice, the eerie shadows and shapes created by the fog and the majestic venue all lent themselves to, perhaps, the most spine-chilling, hair-raising moment of the whole performance.

In this work, choreographer Dorian Mallia seemed intent to experiment with a new process that possibly goes beyond his usual way of working. To make this piece truly interdisciplinary, he ensured that all elements – dance, music and voice – were integrated within the whole choreography.

The dancers had to sing and hum; the opera singer and the cellist were dancing; and the dancers were also embodying the cello music through some eccentric movements initiated from the cellist’s bow. Although the approach was somewhat interesting, the concept was not fully developed, leaving the piece brushing a superficial level of depth.

In terms of choreographic style, Mallia has started to establish a clear sense of stylistic identity. His works are geared towards a semi-classical, semi-contemporary style, with very clear body lines derived from the classical training of his dancers and a contemporary touch to give it a twist and allowing more versatility.

In D.O.K., most of the attention seemed to be directed towards the only male dancer in the choreography, Lucas Roque, where he partnered all the female dancers and also performed a very mesmerizing, powerful solo. As a dancer, Roque has an attention-grabbing quality of performance. His sustained flowy movements are complemented by strength and dynamic, making it hard not to watch him dance even when there are other components within the choreography.

Ballet Boyz. Photo: Emma Tranter

Although the concept of interdisciplinarity was intriguing, the choreographic narrative remained mainly aesthetic, with a lack of cohesive continuity. There seemed to be no particular link between the solemn moments and the cheerful sections within the dance sections, nor between the live cello sections, playback classical music and the opera sections. The whole show seemed to be a string of random acts in a play merged together to create one work. Nevertheless, the performance was aesthetically pleasing, if somewhat lacking in depth.

Ballet Boyz

As part of this year’s international acts within the Malta Arts Festival, the Ballet Boyz, an all male ensemble, performed their latest touring work Life. Life is a double bill presenting 2 choreographies – Rabbit and Fiction. Works that are very distinct from each other in nature and quality.

Choreographer Dorian Mallia seemed intent to experiment with a new process that possibly goes beyond his usual way of working

For the first choreography, the stage was bare except for a swing hanging from the truss. Two dancers walk on stage, one with a rabbit head the other without. The one with the rabbit head sits on the swing with his back towards the audience and starts swinging while his partner engages in a graceful yet melanchonic solo.

This initial opening set the mood of a surreal dreamlike state with soothing music and flowing movements. From there, the two dancers come together, moving fluidly around each other in a sensuosly intertwining duet. The fluidity of their movements, from dancing in unison to transitioning to some complex lift was like a lengthy, well versed, poetic sentence.

Eventually, nine other dancers wearing rabbit heads joined in, adding a different dynamic to the performance. The whole ensemble danced together or in smaller groups with the same sustained, lush quality set out by the first two dancers, sometimes wearing their masks and sometimes showing their real face. When the whole ensemble joined in, the dreamlike state created at the beginning of the piece intensified.

The wearing and removing of masks highlighting a distinction between the surreal and normality and also created an interesting interplay between the comic and the grotesque, adding perhaps a touch of horror in the mix.

Fiction, on the other hand, was entirely different from the previous choreography. Whereas the first choreography portrayed the all male ensemble as graceful and soft, Fiction portrayed the same men as more ‘macho’. The dancers were all dressed as if they were ready for a ballet class. The only prop for this piece was a ballet barre.

The choreography was based on the choreographer’s (Javier de Frutos) staged death which was being narrated by three different people, while the dancers interpreted the text through movement.

Personally, I found that the narrative of the choreography was not particularly engaging and confusing to follow. When incomprehensive text is involved within a choreography, the audiences’ attention seems to be split in trying to make sense of what is being said and how the movement is related to the text itself. Within that complexity, trying to understand characters of the dancers is even more confusing.

What was brilliantly choreographed, however, was the complex co-ordination of all the dancers dancing at the barre. There were segment where the movement was so frantic and well co-ordinated that they looked like they were weaving a web with their bodies – going over and under the ballet barre, over each other, interacting with each other, repeating movements one after the other while still maintaining a steady rhythm and interacting with the barre.

Although stylistically different, the two pieces brought out the versatility of Ballet Boyz, from softness and simplicity to virtuosic and complex, while maintaining a focus on the male dancing without having any sexual undertones.

Perhaps in a country that still stigmatises male dancing in classical and contemporary contexts, having Ballet Boyz over proved that male dancers are in fact powerful and entrancing to watch.