Although first conceived in 2019, Fleur de Thier’s The Case of… has only now arrived on stage, its originally scheduled performances having been abandoned because of the April 2020 Covid 19 lockdown.  Conceived originally as a piece for two professional dancers, the experience of Covid 19 and its associated travel restrictions has led to the work being recast to include an ensemble of eleven dancers from Rebound Dance Company.  Originally intended to explore the psychological effects of leaving home and travel, the work took on a different meaning once the very notion of travel had been redefined by global lockdowns and the disorientation associated with unprecedented social controls.  De Thier has consistently explored the impact of dramatic events on people’s lives as well as the social rituals that give meaning to everyday experience, so it is hardly surprising to find her responding to the global pandemic through the medium of dance.  The fact that this work is so open ended and unresolved in terms of its meaning is also to be expected since the ultimate impact of Covid 19 on all our lives is still in flux.  If de Thier’s response to the Canterbury earthquakes over a number of works is any guide it is reasonable to expect that she will have more to say on this theme in future works.

The Case of… opens with a crumpled piece of fabric lying in a heap on one side of the stage. It gradually comes to life as something moves beneath it and limbs slowly emerge.  Is it a fluffy bedspread from which a sleeping person is emerging? A foot in high heels pokes out before dancer Julia McKerrow fully emerges to wrap herself in what turns out to be a large, faux-fur coat.  Is this the ending of a story that has already played out or is it the beginning of something new? The first hint that we are witnessing not one narrative but two parallel streams of events emerges as Rebound’s Marg Flyvbjerg appears to join McKerrow within the same generous coat. Two lives join then separate to go their individual ways. De Thier’s programme note provides the clue that we are witnessing two parallel universes and it soon becomes clear that McKerrow and Aleasha Seaward represent one of these strands while the ensemble of Rebound dancers populates the other; Flyvbjerg is the go-between who connects the two groups but is not fully part of either.

The other participants are the suitcases that arrive with the larger group, the inevitable accoutrement of travel but also the symbol of the ‘baggage’ each individual carries with them.  In different times the theme of travel might have elicited a more upbeat response, similar perhaps to the celebration of the rituals of horseracing in Rebound’s Unbridled from October 2020. But now the experience of travel is a muted one. Cases are trundled across the stage on a seemingly endless quest, or they become barriers to shelter behind, barriers that Flyvbjerg’s character cannot cross. They also become the dancers’ partners in a joyless tango that seems to reflect the fraught nature of our new experience of travel as something that is risky or simply out of reach.  For McKerrow and Seaward, performing in counterpoint to the larger group, cases are also accessories; Seaward quite literally becomes a ‘head-case’ as her head disappears inside a cabin bag.  The Case of… refers not just to the physical objects we take with us on our travels but to the mental baggage which determines our experience of the world.   

An early sequence for McKerrow and Seaward, in which a single, suspended light bulb acts is the focus is at once enigmatic and suggestive; is the light’s movement a response to the dancers’ actions or does the light control their movements.  The suspended bulb returns at the work’s end as Flyvbjerg embraces its glow as the rest of the company fade into the dark.  Are we, like the character Flyvbjerg represents, caught between two realities, the one we knew and felt comfortable in, and the new reality that we are slowly becoming accustomed to?  Perhaps the answer will become clearer as de Thier and Rebound explore these ideas in future productions.

Integral to the performance is an eclectic soundscape that ranges from electronic music and wordless vocals to Meredith Monk.  Sean James’s sound editing and lighting design combines these diverse elements into a seamless whole.

The Case of… was greeted by an enthusiastic response from a capacity audience but it seems a pity that the show will only receive one further performance in Lyttelton.  What would audiences in Auckland or Wellington, Invercargill or Kaitaia make of this work? The regionally separated condition of contemporary dance within New Zealand means that we will probably never know. One might have thought that the isolation of the country imposed by the global pandemic might have done something to relieve this situation.  A few years ago the director of one of our contemporary dance companies observed that it was easier to get funding to tour to Europe or North America than it was to tour the South Island.  With international touring severely limited for the foreseeable future, surely touring within New Zealand is the obvious next step.  Just as the population at large has been encouraged to visit other parts of the country, surely now is the time for Creative New Zealand to support our dance companies to take their works to other audiences within our own shores. 

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