Dance
Actions, not (many) words
Giannandrea Pomo
Not unlike contemporary dance, the art of mime, within the last 20 years, has become a multi-layered theatre genre that encompasses diverse means of expression. The solutions prescribed by the various mime schools have been integrated and implemented with elements derived from other performing techniques, such as dance, ballet, acting, singing, puppetry, clownery, juggling and acrobatics. This inclination towards what is generally called `total theatre' was particularly evident in this year's London Mime Festival, regard- less of the different cultural, artistic and geographical backgrounds of the various companies.
Use of the voice — once taboo for the mime artist — has long been an accepted component of mime performances and, in most cases, a vital one, as it provides the dramatic pretext for the movement vocabu- lary. This is the case with Memories of Unknown Ties which marks the debut of a new group, the Theatre de l'Ange Fou, formed by students of the London-based Ecole de Mime Corporel Dramatique. The performance at the Battersea Arts Centre, inspired by a poem by Francisco Brabazon, focuses on the interaction between vivid `movement' images and acted sections prompted by the literary reference. Still, while each member of the company dis- plays a good deal of technical skill — syn- onymous with the good training based on the teachings of the legendary mime artist Etienne Decroux — their acting is rather weak and does not stand out as much as the movement. The discrepancy is aggra- vated by the fact that straightforward act- ing does not constitute an ideal match to the chosen mime sequences which, in my opinion, require a more idiosyncratic, frag- mented use of vocal sounds.
Disjointed, nonsensical, modulated utter- ances and man-made sounds are, on the contrary, the common denominator of the last works created by the French Theatre du Mouvement, shown as part of their Ret- rospective at the Purcell Room. Although they have made regular appearances at the London Mime Festival, it is worth remem- bering that, since the company's inception, it has always been considered by continen- tal reviewers as a post-modern dance com- pany, given their continuous exploration of movement in relation to music. Distinctive post-modern dance components, in fact, characterise early creations such as Les Mutants (1975), the now hilarious, now ten- der Tent que la Tete est sear le Cou (1978) and can still be found in the more recent If Mona Lisa had Legs (1996). The boundary between dance and mime is, however, very narrow, and the movement solutions adopted in both Encore Une Heure Si Courte (1989) — a dazzling trio for three men — and Siege (1995) — where the focus is on a particular use of body weight and on `silent' acting — as well as the pedestrian nature of the 1996 work, can be aptly clas- sified as mime.
The presence of specific choreographic elements is without doubt another common denominator of contemporary mime the- atre. Continuous references to ballet and dance punctuate the Theatre Le Ranelagh's production of Sur La Route de Sienne which tells the story of Romeo and Juliet — not the Shakespearean version through the actions of a group of clowns in a circus. This is possibly one of the most interesting, appealing and exciting perfor- mances I have seen, for it managed to cre- ate a dense, beguiling aura of theatre magic. The show is a tribute to the Italian film director, Federico Fellini, the man who, better than anyone else, managed to portray both the splendour and the misery of the clowns' lives. Apart from the direct references to Fellini's movie Clowns, the musical score is mostly a compendium of tunes written by Nico Rota — the direc- tor's favourite composer — including the ballroom dances of Luchino Visconti's I! Gattopardo (The Leopard).
The story of the star-crossed lovers who, in this version, marry and live happily `You never know when you'll be barred from a regimental dinner.' ever after — is told through a continuous outpouring of immaculately performed cir- cus antics. The fight between the Capulets and Montagues becomes thus a juggling number with daggers, while Juliet's first appearance at the ball prompts a pyrotech- nic mixture of acrobatics and parodied bal- let technique. None of these elements detracts, however, from the innate simplici- ty and the direct, fresh beauty of mime, thus demonstrating that this art is still retaining its identity despite the widespread appeal of 'total theatre'.
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