Forbidden Fruit Review

A review by Afra Al-Kahira

This is a review of Forbidden Fruit as performed in Glastonbury at Majma 2 April 2000. The performers were: Caroline Wright, Michelle Pender, Madeleine Mitchell, Jillian Osbourne, Denise Darbyshire-Colton, and Gillian Boon.

Through a series of dances Forbidden Fruit tells the historical story of the path of the Dance from the beginnings of the 19th century onwards. The various different dances illustrated everything from Ghawazee, through the influences of Orientalism and erotica/burlesque up today and the various modern usages of Middle Eastern dance.

The show opened with a typical Ghawazee dance featuring Caroline and Michelle and was followed up by a lively Saidi dance performed by Gillian and Jillian. Madeleine then performed a spectacular sword dance using the 'danger' elements as well as some nice be humorous touches. To complete part one first we saw Michelle as "Little Egypt" in a well researched tableau of the performances seen at the Chicago Colombian World Fair in 1893. This was followed up by "The Bee" performed by Caroline, depicting the "striptease" dance often performed by Egyptian dancers at the request of Orientalist traveler's from Europe in the 1890s.

Part two of the show opened with Michelle performing " Fatima's Dance" a rendition of the peep show type of performances often seen at the turn-of-the last century. Caroline followed this with a number danced as Mata Hari. Caroline really seemed able to capture the essence of Mata Hari, mixing Far Eastern with Middle Eastern dance. She even looked a little like her too. This was matched by a lovely little number by Denise which wonderfully demonstrated the influence of Orientalism on the Ballet world.

The number that really brought the house down was "burlesque" performed by a Madeleine, Caroline and Michelle. Complete with wonderfully outrageous costumes dancing/miming to the song 'Got to have a gimmick' from the film "Gypsy" had us all in hysterics! I also really enjoy it Denise's portrayal of the influences of Little Egypt in the in the 1950s - also great fun!

The last two numbers in quite different ways, both illustrated where we are today. Madeleine gave us the quintessential cabaret number complete with the Hollywood-influenced 'traditional' cabaret costume. Showing us that in this respect, we really haven't moved on that much from the dancers of nearly 100 years ago. The show was closed by all the dancers performing a contemporary fusion number combining elements of the zaar with Western dance forms. The combination of the dance movements, effective costumes and great music was a wonderful way to finish up the show, bringing us right up-to date.

Forbidden Fruit is a marvelous testament to the hard work and effort that is required to put on a any stage production involving the historical elements of Middle Eastern dance. The production values of Forbidden Fruit were very obviously high, showcasing not just the talented dancers, but well thought-out and researched costumes and music.