Grand Finale

Contemporary composer and chorographer Hofesh Shechter offers a brilliant history of world bloodshed with true experimental finesse in his new show Grand Finale. He is no stranger to Melbourne; debuting in 2009 (Uprising and In Your Rooms), this will be his fourth spectacular visit alongside his company, at this year’s International Arts Festival.

In this wonderful powerhouse of modern dance, Shechter unravels the chaotic assemblage of the world at war, including the current climate change crisis.

Bold, booming sonic sounds command the aural space. Ten dancers stand under a triangular beacon of diffused light, upright austere and regimented. Sound claps and darkness represent social and cultural shifts caught in an apocalyptic nightmare.  This is a production that is wary of its surroundings and conscious of its audience.

Movement is chaotic, cataclysmic and constricted yet performers are free, with flaccid repetitive gestures, tribal and primitive (silent war-cries) and traditional folk dance signifying the ongoing struggles of humanity; the fight for freedom; revolution; civil war; social unrest, and the death of millions of innocent people. Bodies collapse and are dragged across the stage, gaping mouths look shell-shocked.  The small gestures such as pointing of fingers, surrendering hands, wiping of brow - all definitive moments like an artist with his brush touching up on the finer details - release poetic performances that are breathtakingly beautiful.  

Yet it is not all doom and gloom, embracing the lighter merriment that is exquisitely juxtaposed against the conundrum. We are treated to a beautiful rendition of what is billed as additional music by Franz Lehar, with his famous “Merry Widow Waltz”, in an idiosyncratic waltzing by the dancers who delightfully cap off part one.

Shechter is renowned for his macabre visions and Grand Finale sits comfortably in his oeuvre. He has for the first time collaborated with a set designer (Tom Scutt), involving a series of rotating monoliths that shift the dynamics and break up the performance, providing alternating ambiences (much like a set change in a stage play), bewitching movements of the on-stage musicians and of course the dancers - while provoking menacing claustrophobic barriers and contrived spaces for rumination.

The lighting design (Tom Visser) is a magical dance of lighting techniques, providing chiaroscuro effects and bright burnt orange hazes that intermittently bathe the stage. The rain (bubbles) ironically encapsulate the lighter side of this dark themed production and the joyous Jewish folk dancing phases out the end of the show with an optimistic ray of hope for mankind.

Grand Finale is a superb feast for the senses that will stay with you long after the show has finished and is a spectacular introduction to anybody who wants to embrace contemporary dance.

Flora Georgiou

Photographer: Rahi Rezvani