Creation myth mixes poetry, masks and dance

By BERNADETTE RAE

Hugh Major's creation myth, Animalia: the Shapeshifters, begins and ends in darkness, against which comes the movement and evolution of creatures across the earth, fleshed out and eerily portrayed through a rich mix of poetry, dance, narration and mask.

In the depths of the sea Vaya the octopus feels currents crawling over tentacles.

In the depths of the sea between king tide and ebb tide

Spiral nebulae of starfish ride ...

Schools dart and schools veer

Because rip-toothed death lies near.

This is the feast time of Adaro, the Shark God Who snaps and tears.

The poetry is by Dunedin poet, writer and critic David Eggleton. But the original fascination with creatures and their organisation into a mythical story began with director Major, a specialist dance and drama teacher with a passion for getting young people up on the stage and performing.

He began exploring the "creature" concept with students at Epsom Girls' Grammar School eight years ago. The project continued in various forms under the name of Lifeform.

In October last year Major sent images and descriptions to Eggleton, whose poetry he has always admired, as inspiration for a script for a stage show.

When the finished script arrived it was a mere 10-15 minutes long but provided Major with "enormous, fertile ground on which to build and add significance". The final work is 70 minutes in length.

Major studied Butoh dance in Tokyo, with Kazoo Ohno and Torii Ebisu, and in Edinburgh with Masaki Iwana, from 1989 to 1994, and Butoh techniques are important in Animalia's composition. Butoh originated in Japan as a reaction to the destruction of World War II, moves at an agonisingly slow pace but is "deeply involving, hypnotic and entrancing".

"It is guaranteed to get you in touch with your angst," says Major. But he has significantly adapted the traditional Butoh element, "maintaining the power" but interspersing it with a variety of other contemporary dance elements. The eclectic blend creates a specific mood.

He has also studied theatrical mask-making, in Florence in 2000.

"Getting rid of the human head and replacing it with an animal's is a fascinating stage convention," he says - and a vital element in his creature creation.

A cast of 10, including Matt Gillanders, Patrick Suenderhauf and Chao-Yuan Chen, a former head girl at Epsom Girls' Grammar School, portrays 20 different characters in the performance, including Fire, Thunder, Frog and Shark gods, reigning over a creation of reptiles, birds, fish and bats.

While the work is primarily a dance cycle, there is a narrator and some of the major characters also speak lines.

"It is," says Major, "a very pure form of communication."

The stage design is by Major's brother Grant Major, who worked on Whale Rider and Lord of the Rings (for which he won an Oscar), and provides a natural setting for undersea action, as well as land and sky scapes. Lighting is by Vanda Karolczac.

Performance

* What: Animalia: the Shapeshifters

* Where and when: Maidment Studio Theatre, from tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm