Aaron Orzech and Collaborators – Dance Informa Journal

Arts Home, North Melbourne.
10 November 2022.

Generally, idea is king, and what we’re watching is an thought enjoying out. Such is the case with Nevernevernevernevernevernevernever. (Sure, that’s seven nevers; though not all of them land.)

As a meditation on childhood and rising up, By no means is catalysed by the truth that one of many performers is a 13-year-old boy, Sol Feldman. That he and his grownup dance accomplice, Aaron Orzech, started to develop this work when the previous was solely eight provides additional intrigue. It’s one factor for grown-ups to muse on the inevitable nuances of childhood and maturity – and for different adults to observe them do it – however for the kid the true nature of the section shift can solely be guessed at. In gentle of this, By no means guarantees the potential of one thing richer than misplaced youth pining and ‘you are able to do it’ dreaming for precocious children.

From the outset, the conceptual framing is obvious. The novelty of the boy/man duo is quickly dissolved within the elusive and existential undertow, the place grownup selves conjured and little one selves remembered swirl round in a dreamlike miasma of I. The diaphanous curtain that veils the motion, the muted, half unheard phrases, the motion each mirrored and fractured…all of it like our personal life expertise, related and separate. 

Nevertheless, as soon as the supple twinings of idea have been revealed, By no means appears content material to stay. As dance it doesn’t catch fireplace. The bodily language appears half shaped. Both that, or Orzech and Feldman don’t actually go for it. The punctuation is simply too unfastened, the varieties unsurprising. Although true that technical virtuosity and athletic efficiency are usually not obligatory for an ideal dance work, there’s a flatness right here, and the unique momentum slows, after which there emerges a curious sense of going by way of the motions, as if all of the little one want do is await nature to take its course and grownup realisation will duly arrive. 

The seven nevers might have taken larger dangers. They might have nudged us into discomfort, right into a deeper self-questioning. A few of this limitation possibly as a result of Feldman’s youth and the prudence of the adults he labored with on this piece. Certainly, By no means’s bravest selection was possible the willpower to make it occur, as a result of maybe what we actually see with this work is the irreparable disjuncture of kid and grownup. Even the by way of strains have gaps; and it’s throughout this area that Orzech and Feldman, and choreographer Jo Lloyd, don’t fairly attain. 

Thus, for all its conceptual juice, the realised work is noticeably arid. As theatre it’s too one paced, and as dance spectacle unremarkable. That stated, there are moments of poignance and psychological subtlety, in addition to a lyricism that chimes as bittersweet to an grownup critic; however which could strike a 13-year-old as the fun of potential. 

Maybe, in saying this, I’ve blundered onto the nub of the thought; particularly, the uneasy relationship between potential and actuality. If that is what the work’s creators had been intending, nicely achieved them. If not, we’re merely older, no matter which means.