Dance performance Plex (to be plexed)
Amsterdam, Overtoom 301, 01.04.2005
Paul Bijlsma
Vincent Cacialano among other things is a member of Magpie; a group successfully known by their live improvisation dances.
Cacialano¹s solo performance Plex, for the second time performed this night, is a complex building of various elements. After a day of exciting sunshine and a lazy diner in the nearby Vondelpark, I enter squat OT to let myself be taken by the world of dancer Vincent Cacialano. I know Marten de Wind made the according music and I¹m very curious about the sum of these two artists.
9.15 P.M. While the public is entering the room, Cacialano walks repetitive secure circles towards and from the people and meets them with his presence. He literally takes the space, and with strong intent keeps it in his possession till the very end. In this he clearly benefits from the sound being strongly present as well. Somehow the layers of deep and higher tones are like the grass where Cacialano walks and later, from sweatiness, drips on. The sound is almost economical by its transparent arrangements. But underneath, it has the capacity to strike the listener deeply with its meanwhile triggering emotional packing. It seems like the impulses of the sound also move the dancer from creating and mutating, seemingly factual, to a final self-inflicted self ending implosion. Let me explain this.
It looks simple in the beginning but the further Plex is taking you, you may get startled by all aspects telling something at the same time. And somehow together. You are getting plexed indeed. There are more parts to be divided in this performance. And in every part there¹s a different composition between sound, dance and video (and the using of the space). In the first piece, by watching Cacialano dance, the idea arises of a person playing with a marionette and at the same time being the marionette itself. This is because Cacialano beautifully clear uses the moment of impulse to start moving. He really takes the public with him on this almost pro-active road from getting the impulse, waiting till it hits the inner climax and following its intension to the end. There is gravity (because of inner relevance) but also playfulness in this. Some movements cause curly lips: they¹re funny.
At the same time the video screen, placed at the left of stage, shows a person neurotically moving his hands over his face, looking tensed. A few moments I wonder if the video isn¹t too much of the good thing, relating to the already interesting layered content of sound and movement. And considering I find the information presented rather overacted. But maybe this is exactly what is intended: it brings a modifying note in general. And Cacialano watching the video while he dances by brings an interesting link.
In later parts Cacialano doesn¹t structurally evoke the image of being the creator and the creation at the same time anymore; he looks taken over and seems to be moving driven by force. I wonder if there is a conscious shift in his attitude from actively watching himself while moving, towards more being the movement itself while moving. However these are with no doubt, nice shifts to be watching and it loads the performance highly.
That takes me to the point to say something about the choices made in using the space. De Wind neutrally sits behind his laptop at the right. Cacialano dances left and in the mid, and in some parts uses the whole back area by opening two black doors. There are a few moments, and those strongly appeal to me, Cacialano stands face to face with De Wind. The explicit tension in that made me wonder about the relationship between the two persons and therefore the two elements: dance and sound, sound and dance. De Wind looks at him consciously present but with no clear motion, no expressed re-action, only sitting, bringing the sound. But isn¹t Cacialano looking the same? Who is acting, who is re-acting? And what creates what? Both figures look strong and authentic. The dancer and the sound maker. Only the dancer moves again and returns a few times to this face-to-face position. It¹s like he¹s either asking or saying something to his (co-?!) creator. This is an interesting dialogue.
When the video takes over the whole scene, dancer and music both stop, there¹s a sudden change of atmosphere. As the video goes on, the public laughs in reaction to the sentence Katie Duck is repetitively play backing hilariously: "He is a liar; in fact, he is a big fucking fool¹. After that the dancer dances a short piece near the sound maker and pushes his thumb in his own breast letting swift movements follow on that. In an atmosphere of moderation and building down, Cacialano stops himself right there. Shortly after that he takes a short moment to receive his applause. I¹m flabbergasted by this sudden though beautiful ending and my mind is working double-time to catch the whole scenery.
I hope this performance will get the further crystallisation it already contains (by performing it at least twenty more times). I am certainly still thinking about its plexness.
(CvH)
Vincent Cacialano
Commando Cauldron