Traversing Sense @ Tank 3 May 30,31 June 1 1997 Review by Kevin English Arts Nexus July- August 1997 I witnessed a recent performance at the Tanks Art Centre which peeled back the country town mentality of Cairns to reveal a venue on the cutting edge of contemporary arts in Australia. A truly sublime performance, Traversing Sense, and for me a double treat in live theatre - no dialogue. Certainly in the Butoh genre, but not Butoh as seen in Sankai Juku - at the extremes of a deep subconcsious expression, primarily derived from the post war era of anguish and resignation leading to a reappraisal of the essence of life itself. With the explosion of Butoh in the major European cities by such companies as Sankai Juku, and the Ariadonne Company and in particular Ko Murobushi, many dancers have been influenced by the movement. By western dancers delving into this new way of thinking dance, we are beginning to see the emergence of a style of performance that does not tell a story of romantic love with tragic overtones by performers in pretty costumes dancing the same steps in monotonous unison, but something more sublime. One where we as audience are forced to immerse ourselves more deeply in the action and to think our way through subconscious revelations offered by the performance. This was the first event in the newly opened Tank 3. The set involved the entire space, with the audience not hesitating to follow as a crowdas the action moved to a different area. From evolution of life through a web of ropes, the stark futility of life on the water, backs to the wall, together but alone. I kept feeling the desire to touch another person. When the doors opened to a nature fairyland, a feeling of hope seemed to surge through the audience. Yes there is beauty in living, we are beautiful, as the grass, the hills, the trees, the sky, the stars. Throughout the performance, various foibles of our humanness were parodied and portryed with consumate skill. Leah Grycewicz and Heike Muller seemed more at ease with the minimalist technique of Butoh, although the other bodies of Claire Hague and Rebecca Youdell did ease themselves unconcsiously into the style of the performance. The sound was hauntingly atmospheric. In the beginning was complete darkness with agong ringing through the Tank. Rigel Best provided the bass and his great mouth issued forth with appropriate song and sounds. The other musicians Michael Maclean, Marc Wohling and Duanne Gerussi combined to produce a mesmeric score finely attuned to the action of the bodies. So called in the program notes- for as we are all dancers so too do the bodies of the performers reveal our innermost fears and joys, our inhibitions, our arrogance, our concern, our nonchalance, our greed, our generosity our feet on the earth, our heads in the sky. We a material substance - we a etheric being. It is through these extremes that we come to touch upon the essence of ourselves. Arousing all kinds of thoughts through an appeal to the sense and how these senses relate to the essence of the world around us: water, air, fire, earth, brings us to the crux of the performance; Our Minds Will Reason - Our Eyes Will See Cairns is indeed fortunate to have a facility such as the Tanks Art Centre, a venue where ART may flourish without the commercial restaint of theatre as big business. Those responsible to the creation of Traversing Sense are to be congratulated for their brave and daring intitiative. Larger audiences will appear through word of mouth but the essence - the living soul of a major theatrical venue of our planent has been born. Bring on the twenty first century!