Performance

Breath Pieces,

Tramway, Glasgow

Mary Brennan, three stars

So - how do you draw breath? In her just-premiered Tramway commission, Rosanna Irvine links together a host of moments - some visual, some physical, some sonic - that illustrate the ins and outs of an act that is essential to our being alive. As we file into Tramway 4, we catch sight of a hanging cluster of white balloons, hear the (recorded) hu-hu-hu sound of some-one blowing them up and there, across the stretched surface, is video footage of them being inflated. Each balloon is holding some-one’s breath, making what is normally transient and invisible, into a visible presence. It’s a clever nudge towards a heightened awareness of how breath can manifest in various forms.

At times, the focus is primarily on sound. The five performers, including Irvine herself, are initially flat out on the floor: a microphone passed along the line amplifies their breathing from barely audible to rasping gasp - rhythmic inhalings and exhalings that will subsequently translate into phrases of choreographed movement, and into charcoal lines drawn onto a lengthy scroll of white paper.

Aspects of the movement sequences give vivid witness to the effective power of breath: the visible rise and fall of diaphragms hint at the expansion and contraction taking place within the body, generating energy that flows into limbs, torso, voice. We’re shown breath misting, briefly, onto mirrors. Hear breath channeled into rituals of chanting, akin to those heard in Shinto shrines or as a precursor to inducing states of trance. Flurries of bubbles are breath twice over: held fleetingly by a soapy skin, formed and propelled by a puff from some-one’s lungs. By the time the group is solemnly snip-snipping at the balloons, letting the air escape and the ‘sculpture’ sigh and collapse, we’re attuned to the energies of the unseen aether around us and in us.