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Review by Dolce Fisher ARAD
Kay Armstrong, Artistic Director of Pulse8 Manly Dance Theatre has
done an exceptional job of gathering talented young dancers on the
verge of successful careers and created a strong training ground
for them. Pulse8 allows these dancers to experience a professional
environment and enjoy the chance to perform and work with renowned
established and emerging choreographers. I am sure there are many
young dancers across the country who would jump at the chance to
work with a company like this.
Flaunt began with Anton's work
- Experiment 115 - 3. Anton stated that 'there is entertainment
in oddity', and displayed this successfully as many in the audience
found humour in his choreography and laughed throughout. Anton used
many layers to create the piece - silence, the human voice and a
metronome, as well as an original score written by Sasha Budimski.
The use of the metronome was by far the most creative part of the
show and as a dancer I found it very inspirational as he used something
so small to create a big idea. This was the highlight of the evening
for me personally.
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choreographer, as the way she binds
movements together makes her work easy to watch.
It is a shame there is only one
male dancer in the company, Dale Polglase. Dale featured more
prominently in Recoil and was a pleasure to watch.
Dale is developing as a talented dancer and I hope that his
role in Pulse8 is an encouragement to other young male dancers.
It will be great to see further males join the company in
the future.
These first three works displayed common elements, combining
the use of the human voice and silence. They blended so well
that If I hadn't read the programme I may not have been able
to decipher that they where works by individual choreographers.
Although displayed excellently, this voice and silence use
seems to be the 'in thing' in dance choreography at the moment
and I fear that it is becoming too common in popular contemporary
dance culture, featuring in many popular works in the last
few years. On the flipside this also throws out a challenge
for all choreographers to push the boundaries of their creativity
and to be incredibly innovative in every work that is developed.
It must not become a formula.
Dog Dance by choreographer Vicki Van Hout was inspired
by Indigenous myths. In this work she ingeniously blended
her love for Aboriginal/Islander dance with contemporary movement.
The piece started off strong and stood out as being different
to the others, probably due to Vicki's varied cultural history
and experiences. Dog Dance displayed a refreshing and
engaging new style.
The performance concluded with
a piece by Kay Armstrong. Kay created an interesting end to
the evening which included much voice work, dance on film
and a large finale. The different ways the dancers used a
microphone was very clever and I enjoyed this element.
The girls performed a segment
where they kneeled over with their
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| Pulse8
Manly Dance Theatre present Flaunt |
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heads in buckets holding up their hair.
The visual image was a little disturbing as it made me think about
girls with eating disorders vomiting and I felt that the one image
was seen by the audience for far too long. However, the moment did
eventually pass and the dancers started blowing bubbles in the water
in their buckets. I realised that this segment tied in with the
theme of Manly and its beach culture as dance on film showed the
dancers in different areas in Manly. As dance on film has so much
potential to communicate, I hope that Kay continues to explore this
as the company develops. The finale was a fantastic way to end the
show. It was really refreshing to see someone take a curtain call
and make it exciting! The only thing that let it down was that most
of the dancers were not as strong in their jazz technique as they
were in contemporary, however the dancers are developing their diversity,
and the majority of the dancers had displayed a high technical level
throughout the show. With time and further training the dancers
are very capable of mastering both styles.
Two stand out dancers to watch in future are Sydney Smith and Jayne
McCann. I am interested to see how many careers will come out of
this company. Pulse8 is filling a gap in the Sydney dance scene,
providing these dancers with something that is not currently available
to them. I hope Kay continues her fantastic work with vigor, holding
further events like Flaunt, that engage the audience that
does not dance and refreshes the audience that does.
For further information about Pulse8
contact Kay Armstong at
kayzel@hotmail.com
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