Gozitan troupe Naupaca Dance Factory returned to Malta earlier this month with their much anticipated offering The Death of Snow White. After an opening night at the Aurora Theatre, Gozo, the group presented themselves to a Maltese audience at the Mediterranean Conference Centre (MCC), Valletta.
A story that was at once reassuringly familiar and disquieting, juxtaposing Biblical imagery with shades of the body in decay
The MCC proved a stately venue for the show’s intriguing mix of baroque and contemporary sensibilities, enhanced by an interesting selection of music (although there were a few issues with sound on the night) and lavish costumes created by Luke Azzopardi.
Choreographer Joeline Tabone, along with writer Maria Theuma, developed a story that was at once reassuringly familiar and disquieting, juxtaposing Biblical imagery with shades of the body in decay.
Young dancer Denise Buttigieg resumed her role from last year’s Naupaca production Alice’s Adventures Undergroud as Tempastas. She maintained composure throughout, a point of reference in the jumble of themes and characters.
The titular role of Snow White was danced by Marise Grech, with Yosef Farrugia as Huntsman/Prince. Farrugia, a Naupaca veteran, was brought in (hours before the performance) after the scheduled dancer, Stepan Pechar, suffered injuries during rehearsals. Farrugia’s ability under pressure singles him out as a rare talent and complete professional.
Deborah Agius danced the Queen, and provided the most interesting visual focus of the evening. The way Agius interacted with her Magic Mirror, willing and unwilling, accepting and defiant, highlighted the character’s combination of insecurity and majesty, an uncomfortable but appealing tension that kept Agius’ Queen interesting throughout.
The performance reached a crescendo during a tighter second half, linked up with the final scene of the first act – the body-distorting Dance of the Seven Dwarves.
In one wonderful sequence, my favourite of the evening, the actions of the Queen and Snow White occur in parallel on the stage across a divide of human figures – music and movement come together with complete ease, and the two universes of these isolated women (one trapped in her naiveté, the other lost to anxiety) don’t so much collide as brush up against one another, and shudder.
The last mis en scene saw Agius caught in a terrified dance amid a fan of figures, projected outward from the central point of her own body, silent as a chessboard after the game’s been won. This stillness was ruptured by the Queen’s pathetic sobbing, and the taptaptap of her iron shoes as she danced her final punishment.
You couldn’t help but respond to the Queen, and feel a little resentful that aenemic little Snow White had come out on top.
The other dancers’ ultimate stasis, a background foil for the Queen’s golden shoes caught in perpetual motion, summed them up as characters within a narrative that was driven by an underlying conventionality never fully shrugged off, or even really addressed.
The best thing about this performance was the skill involved, the beauty of the dancers and the dance. As a story, where it ventured into new territory it did so gracefully and with interesting angles, but taken as a whole it compromised too much and delivered too little in terms of the interior journey.
This may ultimately be a flaw in the characterisation of Snow White herself, or a statement about contemporary attitudes towards fairy tales in general – it is important to keep an even keel between self-revelation, and maximising the effects of that exposure.
It seems a shame that while this work pushes itself and the boundaries of its medium, national media has been slow to appreciate its depth, happy to skim the surface.
Critical voices need to take the helm and work alongside performers, sharing their attempts and delighting in their successes but always with an eye to the ultimate growth of quality performance in Malta.
The Death of Snow White is a milestone in that journey, and Naupaca Dance Factory are already at work on a future performance with themes drawn from Dante’s Divina Commedia.
If past productions are anything to go by, it will be another unique offering, sure to set new and exciting standards for contemporary dance in Malta.