Babel (words): towards performative structuralism

"Babel"

sadler's wells, london

May, 2010

Babel (words) is an experimental dance performance concerned with cross-culture communication and confliction, which is named after the tale of the tower of Babel when God pushed the people who built a tower in his name, causing chaos by separating them into different language, cultures and lands. There’s merely an audience is able to understand every point of its performance language as this production intends to challenge the conventional role as an audience by a presenting a collection of 15 languages, 7 religious backgrounds and numerous performance modes as well as the contribution of visual artist Antony Gormley. On the other hand, it makes perfect poetical rhyme by manipulating vocal language, body language and stage construction purely as performative signs, or we could interpret it as an attempt towards performantive structuralism.

How does this performative stuctualism exist?

Antony Gormley’s cylindrical steel frame is considered as the visual access to the concept of structuralism. However, as “words” have been underlined in its title, more attention shall be paid to how vocal language create structuralism and how body language contribute to the construction of the former one.

First of all, the main function of vocal language, narrate, is forbidden here. The language is deemed as a somniferous sign. For instance, the performance begins with a woman explaining to audience in English that before people spoke they communicated with gesture, at the same time she use sign languages. What she talks is what she does. therefore language is no more a communicative tool. Furthermore, to abolish this function, the former scenery is followed by a routine in which all of the dancers make a routine with their hands as if communicating through gesture.

Second, futurism, exoticism and chaos, abundant sensory is transported and magnified by the frequent occurrence of different foreign languages thus an additional level of hearing is created by addressing the mind of audience with the implicit actions behind it. The most influential example as follow: In one scene, two men inflate a robotic lady, treating her like an inanimate object because she is a foreigner to them, whilst another man is similarly tossed and thrown about great skill.

And the third, the debate Sidi Larbi, the chorographer raised in this performance, is whether rhyme is the structure, the “real thing” behind the appearance and the language we all have, which obviously touches the core of structuralism. I agree with him at this point that it is a solution to overcome the limits of language, and to lay emphasizes on none-grammatical meaning of the language.