Production photo by Dajana Lothert
~ Author: Oberon
Sunday June 9th, 2024 matinee - Belfast-raised choreographer Oona Doherty's Joyce debut production, Navy Blue, blends dance with spoken word and is set to an eclectic soundtrack of compositions by Sergeï Rachmaninov and electronic music composer Jamie xx. The choreographer has described the work as "...a bow to dance: this is a questioning of what to do next.” But there is so much more to it than that.
For me, Navy Blue is a towering masterpiece about the state of humanity today. Mankind seems to be rushing head-long from disaster to disaster, our fragile planet slowly heating to a living Hell, wars of revenge or sheer personal greed ravaging the land, politicians eager to impose their vain and heartless ideas on everyone else. People are persecuted daily on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual identity, and age.
It is one such group of the victimized whose story is told in Ms. Doherty's dancework. It's a timeless tale of discrimination, as one by one the eleven people onstage - we don't know who or where they are, nor the reason they are being hunted - are gunned down. Who are these seemingly blameless humans, living in terror... alive one minute and erased from the world the next?
As the work begins, the dancers stand in a lineup across the barren space. The flowing beauty of Rachmaninov's music feels reassuring, though a furtive panic seems to hover over the group. There are unison passages, walking in circles, searching, embracing, huddling together. There are gracious bows; then they all swirl in place to rhapsodic piano music. A sense of wonderment rises; in a pool of light, arms are raised heavenward.
Things become disturbingly beautiful; to the poignant clarinet theme from the Rachmaninov piano concerto, the dancers seem to have found safety. But then a gunshot is heard. A sense of quiet panic spreads as one by one the victims fall. Some struggle to rise, helped by their comrades. To music of incredible tenderness, the dwindling brotherhood await their deaths. One trembling woman remains; she spins quietly in place before being killed.
For a long time, the corpses remain inanimate on the floor. Then, quietly and slowly, they rise, form another lineup, and mouth the words being spoken: a long narrative that speaks of the microcosm of everyone who ever lived which endures in each of us, and of our insignificance as we struggle to live another day on this "pale blue dot" that is our home.
It all sounds desolate, I know. But for me, it was strangely uplifting and reassuring. So many thoughts ran thru my mind while watching the dancers this afternoon, among them the fact that no one asks to be born. We are brought into a world against our will, and we must learn to live in it as best we can.
Every morning nowadays, I awaken, at first instinctively filled with hope, which quickly dissipates as I think of what's a stake in our lives in the coming months. In these days of impending darkness, Galadriel's words ring true: “We stand upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and we will fail, to the ruin of all."
From Ms. Doherty's deeply moving work, one thought will always remain with me: "What can we do but love each other, and die?"
Production photo by Dajana Lothert
The Joyce's presentation of Oona Doherty's work was made possible with the support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels.
~ Oberon