Four Solos / Four Cities (2000)

A choreographic work by Lola Maclaughlin

Like compelling travel writing, Four Solos/Four Cities is at once informative, personal and philosophical. Investigating her fascination with the idea of the city as a metaphor for the self,Lola MacLaughlin symbolizes each one of the four cities as an aspect of the self - Berlin is the intellectual, Vienna the physical, Venice the spiritual and Brussels the emotional.

MacLaughlin's meticulous attention to the elements of design, and to creating exact imagery through costuming and movement, paints four distinct portraits. While each solo exists in its own world of visual and danced language, there are shared elements among them. The solos are complex and richly layered with nuances of the cities' histories, works of visual art and spirits of place, filtered through the choreographer's acute observations. The white floor gives the work the look of a gallery setting.

As though illuminated with the light of memory, the solos unfold as times and places revisited. Projected animal imagery is a link among the solos; the lion of Venice; the white stallion of Vienna, echoed in the dancer's prancing steps. The image of a rabbit in an Old Master still life is a glance at mortality, a reference to artistic craft. The wolf in Brussels suggests the fearsome creature of European fairy tales. Each city has a particular dance reference. Berlin has a sharp, tense look - an allusion, perhaps, to postmodern ballet vocabulary. Vienna refers to traditional modern dance, echoing the city's conservative refinement; Venice is regal, and Brussels evokes the timbre of the work of Belgian choreographer Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker - intense and dramatic.

Accompaniment for the solos is eclectic. MacLaughlin has selected music which ranges from elegant classical compositions to raw contemporary narrative. Each solo incorporates its own stage setting. For Berlin the set is a moveable series of pieces inspired by military barricades. Projected three-letter words hint at MacLaughlin's view of Berlin as an intellectual centre.

For Vienna the set, a machine-like structure with a skull resting on top, is a symbol of the material, the temporal; the costume also becomes a set piece when stripped off to reveal the unadorned body.

In Venice the dancer wears a pair of extremely high-soled shoes, reminiscent of the chaupines worn by 15th century Venetian ladies who walked assisted by long poles or servants. The set is a miniature waterway, with a tiny regatta recalling the city's gondolas.

The tower in Brussels was inspired by the beauty of the architecture in the city's Great Square, and pays tribute to an enduring appreciation of fine craft, to the co-existence of history and the present.

Throughout Four Solos/Four Cities the reversal of scale in the sets - Susan Elliott atop the tower in the final images of the work - suggests the sense of displacement which jolts travellers toward new awareness. The dancers are highly significant to Four Solos/Four Cities. MacLaughlin selected the women for their individual qualities, which personify characteristics of the cities. Hope Terry's stature and strength give Vienna a dimension of luscious physicality. Jennifer Murray projects edgy intensity. Andrea Gunnlaugson personifies the ethereal vitality of a Venetian painting, and Susan Elliott moves through lightning-fast gestures with open-faced wonder, exploding into space as if propelled by the fullness of her heart.

Carol Anderson

_{Images: Andrea Gunnlaugson (right) and Susan Elliott (previous page) by David Cooper}