Review:Fuse, Perth Institute Of Contemporary Arts, September 1

I have to be honest: when it comes to the world of contemporary dance, I’m relatively inexperienced. I’ve seen a few performances but I’m by no means an expert, so I really wasn’t sure how I’d fare seeing Fuse.

Turns out I needn’t have worried. The melancholy world created by director, choreographer and dancer Jonathan Buckels is one that I am very familiar with. I’ve been a participant in my own version, played out in real life and relationships many times in the past. Except this time it was choreographed to a soundtrack of electronic beats and Etta James, and it was infinitely more graceful than I could ever be.

As the lights dimmed we were introduced to two characters, danced by Buckels and WAAPA graduate Rhiannon Newton. Starting out as strangers, with their own set of rigid routines and proclivities, the two eventually ‘meet’, get closer and begin the classic relationship dance of adapting and changing to accommodate their partner.

For what seems like a brief moment, a symbiosis occurs and the two dancers meld together and become one. They dance on top of each other, in unison, using cushions and a white tablecloth as modes of attachment. Newton is thrown about and, eventually, suspended from an upturned table in a particularly haunting scene.

The union is short lived, though, and eventually leads to unhappiness, taunting and resounding resentment.

My favourite scene of the performance sees Buckels and Newton standing atop a long trestle table. They dress one another, smoothing collars and adjusting straps, until they mirror the other’s image of the ideal version of themselves. Unfortunately their expectations of each other don’t seem to live up to actuality. As they stand facing the audience, wearing ill-fitting costumes and their faces filled with anguish, the stage fades to black. This beautiful scene sums up what most relationships are about: in a sense we’re all standing atop our own trestle tables, being manipulated, adjusted and readjusted to fit an ideal created by someone else.

Jonathan Buckels and Rhiannon Newton were brilliant performers, but the night had two unlikely stars: an older couple who were coerced onto the stage by Newton during a brief interlude. They mesmerised the waiting audience with a slow, uncertain shuffle and reminded us that love can be a truly beautiful thing – if we can make it past all the drama.

WORDS: Krissy Bradfield