Axis Mundi - El Portal de Sinaloa - April 27, 2012

Maureen Fleming transports to an imaginary universe with her performance "Axis Mundi"

BY ELIZABETH GÁMEZ

The soul is free and so is the expression, and this was demonstrated by Maureen Fleming's harmony, flexibility and metaphorical images that were applauded from start to finish by the audience of Culiacan, who gathered on the third day of activities for the twenty-sixth International José Limón International Dance Festival. The artistic director returned to the Pablo Villavicencio theater to present her movement poetry, creating images that transport and transmit feelings, involving multimedia.

Wrapped in a red cloth, which showed her silhouette, the Japanese artist immersed viewers in the choreography Axis Mundi, the connection between heaven and earth. The metaphorical images led to a nonexistent world, achieved through movements in slow motion. Thus, the screen was seen as a sunset, the terracotta colors transporting to another place. While on a water spring, positioned on the floor, was the same silhouette, but in different colors, so it became another expression.

A flexible body was her main means to "communicate" and the communion of it was in synchronicity with the music of Philip Gloss, Somei Satoh and Henrik Gorecki, the sound being another means of transportation along with the art of Fleming. Sounds of rain, with music sometimes sublime, other times intense, accompanied her butoh inspired relentless pursuit of what is universal about the journey of the soul. Wrapped in a white veil, between turns and turns, looking for the universe with her wings, completed her movement made poetry, followed by repeating applause, from the audience of Culiacan, known for it’s enthusiasm. Fleming thanked them in a same way she created her dance: in slow motion.

ARTIST
Maureen Fleming is a performance artist, born in Japan. At 2 years of age, she suffered a serious car accident with her mother. The effects of both physical and emotional experience have formed a thread through her life and influenced if not driven her devotion to the study of physical movement.