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 The performance-dance-movement piece was a twenty minute work by the Canberra-based Mirramu Dance Company with Elizabeth Cameron-Dalman, OAM, as Artistic Director / Choreographer / Dancer, Vivienne Rogis, principal dancer and Amanda Miller. The first performance with this team was produced in 2002, on the eve of November 1st, between Hallowe’en and the Celtic New Year – traditionally a time of celebration of the liminal space between the worlds of the living and the dead; a time of honoring of one’s ancestors. This festive time of the year is very popular in Northern Ireland and is a time when there are celebrations across divided communities. During this 2002 performance, three female performers (Elizabeth, Vivienne and Lycia) move through the various stages of a woman’s life (symbolized by costumes of white, grey and black – maiden, mother, crone or wise woman). Elizabeth looked over some research materials that I provided and a general outline and then choreographed the dance work(s). I spent a few days at her studio on Lake George, outside Canberra, where we refined the concepts according to the various sections of Thomas Fitzgerald’s music. Then we incorporated the dresses, props and began work with Vivienne. At the time, Elizabeth had recently completed a performance about silk. Elizabeth has had a history of choreographing for civil rights issues from the 1970s onwards, including a dance about ‘The Irish Question’. Her performance for The Memorial gives a more thorough understanding of the symbolism of the Irish Linen handkerchief as the ‘building block’ of The Linen Memorial. In this way, the textiles component of the sculptural monument - memorial are given greater dimension. Working with textiles shows the activities around which women form community and family life, such as the domestic duties with which one cannot live without (regardless of gender). The simple, repetitive tasks of washing, ironing and cleaning are given form through the dance and choreography. For example, there is interplay with the various uses of a handkerchief: from the drying of one’s tears and blotting one’s face; to the necessary continuation of life’s domestic chores (even through periods of mourning); also using the hanky to give gifts – sharing and connecting with each other – even after tragic circumstances, such as a sudden and traumatic death. In some still images, a male performer stands alone (in the distance) in a business suit. He provides a symbolic ‘anchor.’ His stoic presence – with the handkerchief as a symbolic ‘mediator’ for touch – illustrates the socialization of men against showing any signs of weakness by openly emotional grieving. ABC Radio Canberra: Interview about The Linen Memorial, 2004 Excerpt from Radio Interview between Louise Marr, Journalist, and Lycia Trouton, Interviewee. LT: Elizabeth Cameron Dalman, a choreographer also worked with me. She is a pioneer in modern and contemporary dance-theatre in Australia and has always worked with intercultural projects. She runs Mirramu Dance Company. Elizabeth and her principal dancers Vivienne Rogers and Amanda Miller are performing today at 1 and 3 p.m. LM: So, how does the dance complement the work? LT: Well, I feel the dance contextualizes the handkerchiefs for an audience in need of more of a dance-theatre narrative to understand the inner human processes of grief and trauma. The three dancers do a section with linen shrouds, for example, and another section with bandages and then they utilize the space itself because of the draped architectural archways created by the bandages.
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| © 2001-2010 Lycia Trouton Updated 5th March 2010 | |||||||||||||
Transcript of Radio Interview
