Expect the unexpected as 'La Madonna' comes alive
By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer
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| Iona Dance Company's Maile Baran is transformed into the Goddess of the Sacred Fruit, part of an interactive performance at Studio 1.
Ray Tanaka 'La Madonna' 8 p.m. today and Saturday, 7p.m. Sunday Studio 1, 1 N. King St. $16 528-0506 |
Many surprises, actually. Surprises that for the sake of keeping things, well, surprising, IONA artistic director Cheryl Flaharty probably shouldn't divulge. Ultimately, they're surprises that she offers up anyway out of pure excitement.
"You could be led up to Pandora's box — which is actually a dresser — and be asked to put your hand in one of the drawers," she says, enthusiastically.
"You could get fed fruit by the Goddess of the Sacred Fruit!"
"You might be blessed by Quan Yin!"
When Flaharty begins talking about transforming Studio 1 into a church, I feel compelled to save some "La Madonna" minutiae for the audience to discover itself.
"La Madonna" is IONA's first interactive, installation-style performance in five years. Translation? Studio 1 will be populated entirely by interactive "works" — IONA dancers as objets d'art — creating a gallery of performance artworks.
"The audience walks the whole time as if in an art gallery," Flaharty says of the unconventional performance. "They're free to move from installation to installation of their choice.
"The installations begin in stillness. The dancers are in frozen moments."
This, of course, being IONA Contemporary Dance, the installations aren't statue-esque forever. Cue those surprises.
"La Madonna" also hones in on Flaharty's fascination with (surprise!) the Madonna. No, not the Kabbalah-lovin' mama with the $300 concert tickets, but the iconic image of the Virgin Mary Flaharty was surprised to find just about everywhere on a 2001 Italian trip.
"I grew up with the main Christian image being Christ on the cross," says Flaharty. "So it was interesting, for me, to see such incredible glory and reverence for the female in a religious setting."
On a trip through Florence's Uffizi Gallery, Flaharty found dozens of ornate paintings depicting the Madonna. Depictions of the Madonna were in every church. Statues large and small were displayed in most shop windows.
"I thought it'd be fun to create a show called 'La Madonna' and just kind of explore the sacred female, in a very God-like position," says Flaharty. "And I say 'God-like' because (many) think that God is a man."
Tracing the roots of the Madonna, Flaharty found similarly sacred imagery in representations of female deities spanning history and culture. From that came an idea of a performance of "living Madonnas."
"La Madonna" presents a variety of iconic images of goddesses in interactive installations "exploring the relationship between earth and the sacred feminine." Naturally, the piece also mixes in Iona's always creative mix of imagery, costume, music, dance and interactive theater.
The performance is the first of what Flaharty hopes will be a trio of similarly interactive Studio 1 installations over the next year, "each one different and experimental, involving theater, different subjects and different ways of using the space."
Pestered for details, Flaharty reveals an interest in paint and painting — pouring paint on her dancers, having them paint with their bodies, or painting while dancing. She gives up a couple of funky surprises here, too.
"In one of the installations for 'La Madonna' there's living earthworms for the earth goddess," says Flaharty. "And the guy from the Department of Agriculture who got the worms for us said, 'Yeah, we go to the Farm Fair and we actually have maggots we put acrylic paint on and they crawl around and make art.'"
Place light bulb squarely over Flaharty's head.
"I'm, like, 'OK ... I'll be calling you in January!'"
Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8005.
