Excerpts from interview with Garry Stewart about Birdbrain,
May 2001
by Michael Nelson
In the early '90s, I was thinking of doing a version of
‘Swan Lake’, working with actors and dancers, set
in a kind of post-industrial toxic wasteland. There were all sorts
of issues that I wanted to address - ecology and the environment,
and genetic modification – that would permeate this version
of the ‘Swan Lake’ story.
Then a few years later, Mathew Bourne made his version
of ‘Swan Lake’ on his company, Adventures in Motion
Pictures, and that seemed to spawn a whole lot of interest. I
became even more interested in ‘Swan Lake’, and began
to wonder why it holds such a pre-eminent position in classical
ballet, and why it's become such a powerful cultural icon.
I think what the original ‘Swan Lake’ achieved
was a translation of really quite cosmic ideas through dance,
which had never been done before. Until then, ballets were really
very simple love stories. In ‘Swan Lake’, the story
is very complex, and ideas are much grander - good and evil, nature
and humanity at odds with each other, and the supernatural in
the form of Baron Von Rothbart.
But also, the way the ballet itself was structured was
something new. The way the corps de ballet was used, for example,
was totally different to the way they'd been used before. Traditionally
they were used really just for decoration, and to give the principals
a rest, whereas in ‘Swan Lake’, they became a kind
of character themselves. And the music and dance complimented
each other to an incredible extent, much more so than previous
ballets.
So Birdbrain really takes a look at two things - it's
not just about ‘Swan Lake’ the ballet, but it's also
about the culture of classical ballet which ‘Swan Lake’
has come to epitomise.
But if you're looking for a typical boy meets girl, boy
loses girl, boy and girl drown in suicide pact ‘Swan Lake’,
then you might have to wait for the next ‘proper’
ballet production.
The concern of the work isn't to tell the story. What
Birdbrain's about is to look at the themes of the narrative and
to try and project them from a different perspective.
For example, one of the scenes in the original ballet
is when the lovers drown themselves in the lake so that they can
be together, and escape the powers of the evil Baron Von Rothbart.
It’s a very powerful, cosmic action to take. What I’ve
done in Birdbrain is to make a scene where the dancers throw themselves
across the space at each other, being caught, and being dropped.
It’s all about throwing oneself into the emotional abyss
and trusting.’
Despite being based on a ballet, even if you don't know
the story, it's not hard to figure it out during the performance.
Video images by Tim Gruchy are projected up on to a huge screen
showing program notes from a late 19th Century ‘Swan Lake’
program. They act like subtitles, describing moments from the
original narrative, while what's happening on stage explores the
ideas that the narrative suggests.
Of course, there are lots of references to the ballet,
and if you know the ballet, you’ll pick them up. But if
you don’t, there are lots of other elements that translate.
It’s a really movement-saturated work, and there’s
an absolutely incredible level of energy from the dancers. They’re
really extraordinary.
And there’s all the other things that are going
on as well. The video, for example, adds another layer of meaning.
It’s one of the elements that I like to manipulate when
I’m creating a work.
I think that it’s really difficult to convey ideas
about culture just through movement alone. Some people use text
and acting, but I’m more interested in the convergence of
lots of media. So we’ve got video working with the music
and the design and lighting, and they all work to complement the
complex ideas the dancers are exploring on stage.
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