Electric! Motionhouse’s Earth Trilogy: Scattered, Broken, Charge

Revisited on film

David Mead

It’s difficult to find much in the way of positives for the arts in the present coronavirus situation. One might just be that it’s made companies rethink how they engage with their audience, and the public beyond their regular audience. A number are busy putting out masses of things. There are on-line advanced classes you can follow along with at home, through yoga and similar, to creative dance for children. Not only are Motionhouse are doing all that but they’ve just released full recordings of their Earth trilogy. Dance and technology are not always happy bedfellows, but in the multimedia shows that are Scattered, Broken and Charge, they come together magnificently, and work pretty well on film too.

One of the reasons each work is so successful is that Spanish film-makers Logela Multimedia and Motionhouse artistic director Kevin Finnan made the different elements fully alongside each other. Never does the technology dominate the dance as is so often the case. Never do you get the feeling that the technology is about someone showing us what they can do with a computer, simply because they can. The result is a creative unity as the team combine to produce works in which the dancers move in, on and through the images.

Scattered, made in 2009, is about water, our relationships with it and its vital presence in our lives. It takes us on a journey from the cold, icy north, through deep blues of lakes and oceans, greens of the temperate regions, the red heat of the desert, before returning to the snow of the far south. As in the other two pieces, while the work has important messages, you never feel like you are being lectured.

The virtual images and real-life dancers combine seamlessly. There are some great visual moments. In a near-Pythonesque scene, two chairs appear on the projections and are ‘sat’ in by dancers before a series of icebergs float past each carrying an object. Best of all is the delightful absurdity of an escalator appearing in a waterfall, and dancers appearing to hang on to running taps, the water cascading over their heads. The timing is spot on as splashes appear right on cue as dancers ‘land’ in virtual pools of water.

While the film gives a sense of scale, the pulling back of the camera to show the whole of Simon Dorman’s massive half pipe set, it also gives it a detachment. Although you can see the set it huge, its impact is diminished severely. Perhaps it’s different if you haven’t seen Scattered live, and especially if you haven’t seen it close up, but for me the thrill of the live performance is missing. That’s unfortunate, although when it comes to film, hardly unique.

Fast forwarding four years took Finnan and Motionhouse to Broken, which starts from the idea that everything is formed from elements found in cosmic dust. It then moves on to probe man’s often precarious relationship with the Earth, how he evolved from it, yet remained part of it.

This time, Logela’s imagery is seen on a slatted screen that forms part of Dorman’s set, and through which the dancers enter and exit. The opening takes us to the very beginning of the universe, shapes constantly morphing into new forms in a timeless void. Later, fossils are continually spun, twisted, shattered and reformed, although best of all, and as with Scattered, are those scenes where dancers interact with the projections, becoming a living, beathing part of the computer visuals.

The opening dance certainly suggests primitive life, but the most powerful comes when the action moves on to reference the Chilean miners trapped underground for 69 days in 2010. It’s a world of moments of hope amid fears. How pertinent is that right now as we seem trapped in our own metaphorical cave with no obvious way out?

As always, Broken is loaded with Motionhouse’s trademark athleticism and physicality. Much use is made of poles that appear through the screen. They are stood on, danced on and hung from, dancers seemingly suspended in mid-air in defiance of gravity. My favourite moment comes when Finnan hits the brake, pauses the video and gives everyone a breather, however. That’s the signal for the appearance of a human totem pole on one of the set’s scaffolding poles, while two further dancers perform a long, inventive and sometimes sensitive duet full of unusual lifts and supports.

It ends in the modern world but not without a surprise as the fragility of our existence (we are being topical again) is laid bare, albeit as an earthquake strikes. What started as dust returns to dust. The journey, the circle, is complete.

Leaping ahead another four years to 2017, Finnan completed his trilogy with Charge, a fusion of art and science in which Finnan worked with scientists at Oxford University to explore the role that electricity plays in the human body and in society. With its super camerawork and editing that makes much more use of close-ups, it’s the best film of the three.

While the scientific input is undoubtedly important, my advice would be not to get too hung up on the idea that humans can be seen as electrical machines where signals power their way along nerve fibres and keep brain cells ticking over, controlling all your thoughts and actions, as Professor Dame Frances Ashcroft puts it. Instead, find the biggest screen you can, sit back and revel in the highly physical dance theatre, circus skills and digital technology.

Charge is loaded with danger. Of course, it’s in the electricity, which can kill as well as give and support life, but also in the dance itself. The performers hang off tissues and fling themselves at each other as dance, circus and gymnastics become fully integrated. Especially impressive is the fluidity. There’s very little in the way of ‘set up’ moments that one often sees in ‘circus dance’ shows. Even on film, it engages totally with never a dull moment.

Integral to the pulsing work is Natasha Chiver’s stunning lighting design. She adds extra layers of spark to the dancers and set.

Science and dance haven’t always been ideal bedfellows, but when they are brought together with equal flair and innovation as in Charge, they pack a powerful punch; theatrical, or as now, cinematic electricity, one might say.

Scattered, Broken and Charge are all available to watch in full until the end of April 2020 on Motiohouse’s YouTube channel.

Check out the channel too for a super range of on-line classes and other ideas to get you moving while stuck at home.