MARK BRUCE, POLLY JEAN HARVEY & JOHN PARISH
Warwick Arts Centre
Hot on the tail of the P.J. Harvey / John Parish album, ‘Dance Hall at Louse Point’, came the live collaboration with choreographer Mark Bruce. Previous performances by the Mark Bruce Dance Company were set to Harvey’s music, but this might be thought of as one stage better. Might be because of the difficulties of choreographing to music that, however hard you practise it, is going to sound that little bit different each night you play it (a good job too). The band were set up sideways on, as if playing to the dancers (using the rest of the stage) rather than to us. This visually self-effacing position was essential in order not to confine the dancers to the sidelines - not just in the sense of allocated space. The first thing to notice is that undoubtedly the vast majority of people were there because of P. J. Harvey and they might not otherwise attend a modern dance production. So the question to ask is whether, despite this, the evening achieved a balance, and a compatibility, between these two forms.
Let’s start with the musical end of things (it’s as good a place as any). There were certain restrictions placed upon it - no improvising, no chatting to the audience - in short a strict schedule, a far cry from the freedom of a traditional music concert. The hope was always there that the band might continue on at the end with a few old P. J. Harvey numbers, but instead we were faced with the self-restraint that the format required. What shone through all these restrictions, however, was the strength of the material played, particularly ‘Civil War Correspondent’ and ‘That Was My Veil’ (the single). The band gave a totally assured performance. Despite the continuous dancing, one often felt one’s eyes pulled towards them, particularly to Harvey as she sang, such did her voice capture your attention.
The dancers, then, had much to compete with (or at least, much to compliment). Their success was mixed. The slower numbers (particularly the opening one) seemed to give a free reign for one or two of them to express themselves, which they did beautifully, and in a way that fitted the mood of the music well. When it came to the louder tracks, with all five of the dancers, they seemed less free to communicate something of their own. And even then, instead, which might have worked better, of trying to respond to the words of these songs, they took their lead from the music, and to me this lead too much to the dancing becoming a visual pleasantry rather than a force of its own.
So - rock gig or choreographic performance? Perhaps I might cynically inform you that there was a two-song encore - hardly common in dance performances. Or perhaps I might argue how I hoped for a greater exchange between the two fields by the stronger sense of a narrative contiguous to them both. But, despite these reservations, it has to be said that simply by way of entertainment, it was so much more than your average gig, and has got to be commended for being that something a little bit different.
