Dancehouse

Australia's premier centre for independent contemporary dance research, training and performance.

May 2012

Art is Monster

This month, Atlanta Eke's monster bodies will take over Dancehouse. In contemporary dance, that's quite rare. We often see beautiful, perfectly shaped, perfectly moving bodies. We see so much of those that many people expect to see dance performances which are nice, harmonious, virtuosic. Quite frequently, art is expected to be pretty, pleasing and entertaining.

Well, this time it will be ugly, dirty, messy, provocative, and at times, indecent. It will disturb some, it will outrage others, it will most assuredly provoke a lot of discussions and...this is good.

We have grown into the habit of expecting things to be on the safe side. We don't want our comfort zone to be too much stirred or tampered with. Which is surprising, given the world we live in – we get people being massacred live on the 7pm news but we don't like to see ugly things in galleries or on stages. That is because we haven’t yet solved the thorny question of the purpose of art. The debate has been going on since Aristotle and Plato. Aristotle thought art had to be moral and educational. Plato wanted artists out of his ideal Republic, because they are powerful shapers of character, therefore citizens needed protection. For centuries on end, Renaissance patrons wanted art that showed joy and human beauty.

The issue is that what we are used or conditioned to consider "beautiful" or "ugly" can change with the swipe of a brush or the turn of a century. For this show, many will consider what they will see as ugly, monstrous, disgusting. No wonder, Atlanta Eke investigates the monster that lies in the space between the dancer and the audience. And the ones lying within ourselves. It sometimes takes ugly means to deliver a message about the ugliness in the world and in our souls.

The purpose of art today is multi-folded. But perhaps the most important of all is to enable people to see or think things formerly invisible or ignored. The perfect vehicle for knowledge and vigilant curiosity and propensity to question, to marvel, to doubt. And beauty has its limits here. Beauty, just as ugliness, is in the eyes of the beholder. We all have monsters in our bodies and minds. Atlanta will shake them a little bit for us. Come and take the ride!

-- Angela Conquet --