Martha Clarke's 'Garden' is a dancing delight worth indulging in

By Susan Broili : The Herald-Sun

Jun 8, 2007 : 10:34 pm ET

In the elevator at the parking deck, a woman with a stunned expression on her face asked fellow passengers, “Do you know what to make of all that?”

By “all that,” she meant the American Dance Festival performance of Martha Clarke's re-envisioned “Garden of Earthly Delights” last week in Duke University's Reynolds Theater. The last performance of the work takes place at 8 tonight.

In a mere 65 minutes, Clarke takes the audience on a journey from the Garden of Eden to Hell that includes a stop for the seven deadly sins. She does not take a well-worn path. Instead, her dancers fly, wear branches as masks, use a sapling as an instrument of torture. One dancer gorges himself on raw potatoes to depict gluttony in the sins section, which is full of vile, disgusting human behavior (but not as gross as the original work Clarke presented at the ADF in 1985).

The dance begins as a herd of dancers on all fours, hindquarters thrust heavenward, strides onto the stage. Eve (Sophie Bortolussi) emerges and she and Adam (Whitney Hunter) dance a tender duet. But after the serpent (Gabrielle Malone) temps Eve with the apple, their violent coupling reveals their loss of innocence. Dancers appear to be nude but actually wear very thin, flesh-colored unitards.

Though inspired by the Hieronymus Bosch painting from which she takes her title, Clarke goes above and beyond in her own creation.

Flying tops the many delights in this “Garden” as dancers float, turn flips and leap with gusto and daring as Hunter did high above and way out over the audience. The last image of transcendent beauty features flying as a dancer's fingertips brush the stage before he lifts and slowly spirals upward as though he's headed for heaven.

The way musicians take an active role in the drama also proves delightful. Arthur Solari utilizes dancers' bottoms in his percussion as he smacks them with a small drum. With a large drum, he pummels a male dancer. Wayne Hankin plays a flute as he sits on the back of a dancer on all fours and continues to play as his head appears between the legs of an upside-down dancer. Egil Rostad and dancer Gabrielle Malone engage in a life-and-death struggle with his cello the battleground. His playing sounds both melodic and discordant, depending on how the fight is going. He triumphs by impaling her with the cello – an image both erotic and disturbing.

The “boat” section provides some of the most arresting images as dancers use saplings as gondolier poles while standing on other dancers, who roll like logs. Their reflected images on the polished stage look liquid and lovely. These images and others denote Clarke's Pilobolus heritage. She also brings a rich sense of theater and collaborative approach that involves a bunch of talented people including dancers, musicians and composer Richard Peaslee. Plus, she displays a wicked sense of humor in the way male dancers use large seed pods to exhibit male prowess.

Who could ask for anything more?