Salome, the alluring figure who captivated Herod Antipas in the Biblical story, stunned audiences in a creative dance drama by Australia's Sydney Dance Company last week during the ongoing Shanghai International Arts Festival.
They were surprised as the company dancers re-enacted the most erotic dances in their production of "Salome" with their novel ideas.
Several factors, from creative choreography to skilful lighting, have contributed to the dance drama's success.
First of all, there was the aerial dance of Salome herself.
After Salome, played by Tracey Carrodus, took off her last veil, she was suspended in the air from a rope and started an aerial dance like an agile acrobat.
The audience was thrilled by the scene in which the delicate Salome in her white dress flew in the dark space like a snowflake.
Graeme Murphy, the show's artistic director, explained that he had been haunted for a long time by the problem of how to interpret the most seductive dance using the language of contemporary dance.
"One day I said to myself, 'Why not let her fly?'" said Murphy.
The artistic director said he was happy at the warm response of audiences.
"The aerial dance is also symbolic," said Murphy. He said it reveals the inner world of Salome, who desperately wants to escape from the foul kingdom and the lustful stares of her stepfather Herod.
Head Role
Audiences especially applauded the drama's ending -- the dance of Salome with the severed head of John the Baptist.
Murphy recalled that he and the property manager had used all kinds of material to simulate a severed head.
The artistic director said he eventually realized that an artificial head would not do -- it had to be "a real one."
No more rubber head or fake blood. Murphy employs visual illusion.
John the Baptist, played by Josef Brown, was dressed in dark tights, and Salome slithered over his body or mounted on his shoulder as if John really had been decapitated.
Middle Eastern Music
The dramatic dances were accompanied by the superb score of Michael Askill, a composer and a percussionist. Askill enlisted help from the Turkish musician Omar Faruk Tekbilek, who recorded the singing part for it and gave a lot of advice to Askill.
The production uses a successful mix of prerecorded Islamic chanting along with a live performance of Turkish drumming and African and Asian rhythms and sounds.
Askill's hometown is the South African city of Durban and many of the percussion instruments used are African, such as the bongos, frame drums, jembe (a large, single-headed goblet-shaped drum) and the darbuka (an hourglass-shaped drum).
Nevertheless, the gongs are from China, Askill said.
He said he went to Wuhan in Central China's Hubei Province many times to buy gongs. The musician said he was "amazed" at the copper instruments devised in ancient times.
Askill also trained some of the supporting dancers in playing percussion instruments, thus achieving harmony between the dances and the distinctive percussion music.
The cooperation achieved by the quartet of four leading dancers achieved a very good interpretation of Murphy's inventive choreography, deftly defining the characteristics of Herod, John the Baptist, Herodias and Salome with their precise movements.
Bradley Chatfield used rat-like movements to carve out the image of the vile, sneaky and lustful Herod.
The noble and strong Josef Brown's powerful movement made John the Baptist all the more divine. At the same time, he revealed John's inner turmoil with his earthy and contorted movements.
Janet Vermon insinuated the evil power of the scheming Herodias with sharp twists of the body and wilful hand movements.
As for Salome, Tracey Carrodus, in a dramatic style, carefully developed her character from an innocent girl to an outrageous siren.
Lighting and Costumes
The superb lighting of John Rayment also helped win thunderous applause as it allowed the audience to follow the plot without any distraction.
In the very beginning, the wide bands of light swept from the stage and crossed over the audience in every corner of the theatre. The audience's attention was then immediately drawn to the stage, their eyes glued to the dancers.
Murphy said: "Without John Rayment's help, the last part of the performance would not be so successful. The severed head could not have appeared so ghastly."
(China Daily November 22, 2002)
