NOVELIST Gabriel Garcia. Marquez once said "I think a writer writes only one book, although that book may appear in several volumes under different titles . . . One of these books sometimes stands out far above the rest so that the author seems to be the author of a single primordial work."
Similarly, the work of choreographer Paul Johnson for Mandance has constantly grappled with the issue of the male identity and, within that, the various forms of masculinities and what might be termed men's issues. All his dance works approach this one subject but each from different perspectives, so the perception is of one work constantly reappearing in different guises. And if he thus far has created a primordial work, then that work is Beautiful Tomorrow, performed recently at the Project Arts Centre.
A serious debate on masculinity is now beginning to take place within the social sciences and politics, as well as within gender studies. But any examination of masculinity takes place within a plethora of contradictory media images, each offering the true male identity. The magazines for the New Lads, posters of muscular hairless bodies holding babies television ads of drivers day dreaming heroic rescues in the face of oncoming skidding lorries and the "Irish Male" books of Joe O'Connor each offer part or all of a male identity that we may choose to accept or reject.
Through dance, Paul Johnson is using a vocabulary that seems perfectly suited to its subject. Although lacking the power of narrative, movement has many resonances in the subject of men and their bodies. Beautiful Tomorrow opens with three male dancers, dressed in jeans and T shirts, standing facing one another, yet with their eyes searching the space behind each other. By his very presence on stage the performer radiates power and in this opening image the male dancers reinforce the notion of male power.
Yet by being on display the performer also has a vulnerability by virtue of being subjected to the gaze of the audience. By placing the dancers in a inward facing group with searching faces, Johnson amplifies this vulnerability. This coexistence of power and vulnerability lies at the heart of the male identity and is not only summed jip in this opening image but constantly reappears during the work.
In his book Masculinities, R.W. Connell emphasises the importance of the body in defining masculinity. The similarities of sport and dance are clear when watching Beautiful Tomorrow. Both provide a continuous display of moving bodies. Yet while Western theatre dance has traditionally given greater importance to the female body than to the male, sport has done the opposite. Connell states that sport "embeds definite social relations: competition and hierarchy among men, exclusion or domination of women".
Although Paul Johnson does not directly refer to competitive sport in the dance, the continuous display of (male) moving bodies does enough to reinforce this in our minds. The self confidence gained through body performance (such as sport or manual labour) is often hacked away as self consciousness sets in. At one point in the dance, Paris Payne and Danny Thompson continually shake hands and embrace, at first confident and assertive, later becoming embarrassed and self conscious. As a very simple device, this showed succinctly how the body and one's body image is at the core of male identity.
Overall, Paul Johnson casts the male in a positive way. Although the title, Beautiful Tomorrow, may refer to either the attainable or the unattainable, he refuses to indulge in any overwrought tirades against machismo. He simply presents his case. Nor does he involve any gay/straight issues. When choreographer Lloyd Newson of DV8 was asked if his work Dead Dreams For Monochrome Men was exclusively for gay men, he replied: "I don't think it matters whether the men are gay or straight. A gay man is still a man and has those same emotional blockages."
There are many other levels to Beautiful Tomorrow and they unfold and become apparent during its 45 minutes. It is Mandance's best work to date and well worth a look if it comes your way during its nationwide tour in late October and early November (information on 01-8748534).
