CCDC, Loose Pages From A Woman's Diary, City Hall Theatre, ends tonight The City Contemporary Dance Company's Loose Pages From A Woman's Diary examines womanhood through the eyes of a singer, a painter and finally the dancers themselves. The evening was a generous feat of dance, divided into three parts: La Vie En Rose, Frida and Loose Pages, all superbly choreographed by Helen Lai.
The first piece, La Vie En Rose, emerged as the most integrated and accomplished. The unequivocal feminist message, the understated but clearly defined dance movements, the moody lighting, the stark stage with an expert use of chairs as dance props: all combined to allow an interpretation of Edith Piaf's song that did not compete with the great French singer's emotional power, but complemented it.
The dance opened in a sensual, languorous atmosphere. In a setting that evoked the reception area of a bordello, a metaphor for women in society as a whole, the female dancers waited wearily, enslaved, both physically and spiritually, by men. An exciting and passing thought from time to time lit up their otherwise expressionless faces, but then reality set in and they retired to their resigned positions. A young girl appeared, new in town, bringing with her fresh hopes and aspirations, symbolically represented by a little pot plant she was carrying.
As the dance developed with each succeeding Piaf song, the women were yanked from their chairs by men, their fluid bodies becoming objects to be tossed about, spilled on to the floor, dumped as if they were of no value. The anonymously suited males were packed in close ranks. The message was clear, women were only there for men's collective convenience, their pleasure.
Lai resisted the temptation to match the emotional power of Piaf's songs with histrionic movements. Piaf classics were danced with a contemporary, minimal grace and fluidity.
For the last dance sequence, the choreographer left us to brood over the unsettling images of the previous dance sequences by having only a lady cleaner come on and mop up the place. It ended with her symbolically dumping the little potted plant of the opening scene, the little green shoot of a young girl's hope, into her bucket.
The second piece, Frida, was based on five paintings by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.