Review: Wind of Wall Street
Picture: Wind of Wall Street Dancers (image credit: Creative Futures Photography)
Wind of Wall Street was perfectly located in the UQ GCI, as a fabulous stage for a dance work that questions traditional ways of working, and the toll the ‘Wall Street’ lifestyle takes on participants. Just as the UQ GCI building is designed to encourage a rethinking of office design, Wind of Wall Street asks whether the winds of change might ‘blow through’ the ways of office-work-lives.
As the audience entered the Wind of Wall Street ‘auditorium,’ the ‘stage’ was set. We sat in a slight u-shape around the performance space, where the artists were already demonstrating many familiar tropes of office work: gesturing, stapling, cleaning lint off their business suits, moving piles of paper around, carrying clipboards, and generally being important (all set to stereotypical office sounds, and a murmur of male voices). Which means that I definitely recommend arriving early, so that you have the opportunity to settle back and start to think about the ‘performance’ of office work.
Once the doors were shut, the directorial welcome introduced Wind of Wall Street as an independent dance work developed by recent QUT graduates and students. And then the bell rang, and the Dancers (Maddison Bowyer, Jaide Camlleri, Grace Campbell, Clare Dark, Hannah Groom, Saska Scoon, Floriane Sevault, Mia Sibley, Scotia Taylor, and Anastasia Vogelsang) re-entered the space.
Picture: Necktie straightening (Credit: Creative Futures Photography)
Picture: The GCI stage for Wind of Wall Street (credit: Creative Futures Photography)
Picture: Discarded neckties (Credit: Creative Futures Photography).
Picture: Wind of Wall Street Dancers and GCI audience (Credit: Creative Futures Photography).
In the program notes, Kate Utting (Director, Producer, Chorographer) comments that ‘Dancers wear the male corporate uniform of suits and neckties as a representation of the capitalist society they inhabit. However, this lifestyle soon takes its toll. The remaining narrative and symbolism of the piece is left deliberately open to interpretation.’
For me, the narrative themes might be simplistically described in three ‘movements’: work hysteria, winds of change, and social frenzy. In the first movement, the high-pace dance moves included beautifully-observed references to the repetitive and pressured nature of the minutiae of office life—from adjusting neckties, through to waving greetings across a crowded office (and great 'barre-work' moves on mezzanine level of the stairs). The removal of jackets heralded the more controlled and slow movements to the ‘wind.’ The ensemble balanced, turned, and pirouetted to the ebbs and flows of the wind—culminating in standing and a slow tie-removal, placing each tie on the cruciform figure of one dancer before a ‘falling down.’ The final movement was a thrilling blend of reggae-style beat, and dance moves that referenced nightclubs and kung-fu exercise… before the performers picked up their jackets and slowly walked back down the stairs.
The UQ Global Change Institute (GCI) draws together research excellence and expertise to address grand challenges which deliver impact to society, the economy, the environment, and culture. The GCI living building ‘encourages us to rethink office design in a low-carbon world’—which makes it the ideal location for a modern dance project that rethinks the toll of the financial markets on the minds and bodies of the participants.
As Producer, Director and Choreographer, Kate Utting certainly deserved the warm applause on the opening night. And so did the dancers, and all those involved in the development of this new work (choreography credited to Kate Utting in collaboration with the dancers, and with input from previous performers [Katie McLeod, Mlfrid Søndenaa, Kai Taberner and Grace White]). Jodie Corr’s music was a particular highlight (Binary : Codes MiniMix [Mixed by Signal], and Nine Years Ticklah), as references to the frenzied pace at which traders live their lives—where the demands of work are matched by the furious tempo of exercising and socialising—were greatly enhanced by Corr’s compositions.
Wind of Wall Street worked so well in the UQ GCI space, but as this new contemporary dance work would easily transfer to any performance space or traditional ‘black-box’ theatre. I hope that Utting and the Corporate Dancers have the opportunity to bring this new show to a wider audience.
Verdict: A great use of the space for a thought-provoking view on the tropes of office life. Wind of Wall Street showcases original compositions, and local early-career performers, in an excellent new dance work.
Picture: Wind of Wall Street (image credit: Creative Futures Photography)
Audience information: Wind of Wall Street, Australian Premiere, Anywhere Festival, at The University of Queensland Global Change Institute, St Lucia Campus, QLD 4072 (20-21 May, 2022). Tickets $15. 40 minutes.
The reviewer attended the Friday 20 May (7pm) performance.
Picture Credit: Creative Futures Photography. A copy of this review first appeared on the Anywhere Festival website.