Solo flight transcends the mundane

By NIGEL GEARING

Guy Ryan appears on stage as a passenger on a plane, a Boeing 747 which takes off and roars over the audience. So begins the 33-year-old freelance dancer and choreographer's first solo piece, The Fall Guy.

"The name came from a newspaper article headline I saw three or four years ago," Ryan says. "Obviously it's a bit of comedy on my name. But it also evoked images of scapegoats in old movies and - as happens with all my work - it encapsulates what is taking place in my life at the time."

The Fall Guy's main themes highlight our desire for transcendence, be it in the thrills and dangers of contemporary flight or looking at those creatures who need no artificial means of taking to the skies.

It all begins when Icarus, in Greek mythology, escapes from a labyrinth by putting on wings. But he flies so close to the sun they melt and the first pilot falls into the sea.

"That story so richly shows that every flight will be followed by a fall," Ryan says. "These opposing forces are so symbolic of our daily lives. Love is a good example. Or catching a flight. In one hour you have disappeared from your normal life and have arrived somewhere else without your baggage."

Two white plinths are his main props and they symbolically represent the Hebrew Cross that is so important in Colin McCahon's work, the Twin Towers in New York, and a perch where the dancer - as a bird - sits poised atop one block as an air force bomber.

Original music by Charlotte 90 accompanies images of war and government films advising the populace to duck and cover in the event of a nuclear holocaust, while Ryan puts a thoughtful twist to historic events to reveal their potential for beauty.

"Something you know will be destructive can, when seen in reverse, have beauty to it," he says. "Showing things in reverse brings forth that desire to make it all better again and that feeling - whenever we see, say, the Twin Towers - of 'if only we could go back again'.

"If I can give these events a twist, such as pulling a plane out of a tower, then that may be something people may want to watch."

Ryan finished a degree in physical education at Otago University before completing the two-year dance diploma at Unitec.

For the past decade he has worked with New Zealand's best-known choreographers and dance companies, including Michael Parmenter, Sean Curran and Touch Compass.

Last year he was awarded a Dance Web scholarship with which he attended the Impulse Dance Festival in Vienna, one of the world's largest contemporary dance festivals.

"That experience had a huge impact on my choreographic view," he says. "I'd like to do another solo piece, but not for a while.

"Doing this piece has brought up so many issues about identity. Part of the creative process is engaging in who you are. I'd like my next work to be about what it's like to be Pakeha in New Zealand."

Performance

* What: The Fall Guy

* Where and when: TAPAC Theatre, Motions Rd, Western Springs, July 29-31, 8pm