Sydney Opera House
August 3 2012

By Renata Ogayar.

Terrain, created by resident choreographer Francis Rings for Bangarra Dance Theatre, truly was an incredible sixty-five minute work that transported me into another time and place of beauty and spirituality.

Centred around Kati Thanda (Lake Eyre), Bangarra in Terrain explored the relationship of Indigenous people and the spiritual connection of the lake and its vast landscape. The cultural semiology in every element was profound, powerful and effortlessly beautiful. The movement sequences, costumes, music, lighting and set design all combined, brought this sculptural masterpiece to life.

Terrain was comprised of nine sections representing the evanescent transformation of the promising, yet harsh place.

The first section, Red Brick, looked past the assembled landscape in order to hear an ancestral calling. Setting the scene, the stage was suddenly lit with powerful white lighting that slowly faded out, accompanied by rumbles of lightning and thunder as the dancers entered the space. The simple, yet highly effective, neutral costumes exposed the powerful bodies of the dancers as they moved in a grounded animalistic manner, seamlessly blending from one form to another.

The mens’ ensemble, Shields, reflected the struggle Indigenous people faced with Land Rights and still face today. The dancers proved their masculinity, holding white shields as they executed powerful movements subsequently driven by their signature focus. This section was particularly mesmerizing with electric beats mixed with an undertone of breath compiled with subtle traditional clap sticks creating suspense.

Contrasting the male ensemble was the ladies ensemble, Spinifex. This piece exhibited the style and femininity of the dancers, inspired by the trees that reside in and around Lake Eyre and the spirit women who are suspended in time. The twig like headdresses and long punctuated skirts, with transitory earthy colours, were most remarkable.

Each section contained detailed choreography so seamless, stunning and entrancing that one could not look away. The movements were full of breath and stylish imagery exploring the use of rise and fall, impulse and instigation whilst remaining connected to the terrain of the stage.

The costumes, designed by Jennifer Irwin, were an art installation in their own right, using the landscape of the piece to aesthetically embrace and complement the choreography, bringing it surrealism and life.

The composition of the music delved into the vastness and spirit of Lake Eyre. Violins and cellos captured the beauty of the land while the subtle breath and voices captured the mystery and the spirit of the mystical place.

Karen Norris’ lighting design incorporated a soft fusion of front lights and heavy back lights that brought an element of sincerity to the work, creating mood and ambience to assist in telling the story.

Finally, the set design brought a dimension to the work, capturing the features of Lake Eyre by creating illusions of density and sparseness through nonfigurative forms, textures and colours.

If there was ever collaboration so stylishly portrayed, it was Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Terrain. If you are not familiar with their work, I highly recommended that you experience one of their performances.

Photo: Deborah Brown and Leonard Mickelo in Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Terrain. Photo by Greg Barrett.

By Rain Francis.

Arts Centre, Melbourne
February 2012

The Australian Ballet’s 50th Anniversary celebrations have begun with a big, beautiful bang. Infinity is a triple bill of new works created by three of Australia’s most important choreographers, to three commissioned scores.

The evening opens with The Narrative of Nothing, from Australia’s beloved Graeme Murphy. After creating a string of lavish story ballets, including 2011′s Romeo and Juliet, Murphy opted out of the constraints of expressing a narrative, returning to a more neoclassical, purely abstract form. During the creative process, however, he found it impossible to NOT find meaning in the steps being constructed, eventually coming to the conclusion that as humans we need – have always needed – stories. The resulting ballet is a 30 minute exhibition of formidable technique, not necessarily always virtuosic in the sense of being grand and showy, but intricate, flawlessly executed and at times lightning-quick. As Murphy noted, in the various groupings of dancers, the audience is free to find its fictions and fantasies.

The Narrative of Nothing is set to Brett Dean’s Fire Music, dedicated to the victims of the 2009 ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires. Powerful in scope and elaborately detailed, the score is expertly rendered by the choreography. The dancers are dressed in unitards which are covered in minute mirrors – an innovative design of Murphy’s long-time collaborator, Jennifer Irwin.

Unexpectedly, the most traditional classical ballet choreography and costumes of the evening are to be found within a piece by one of our most eminent contemporary choreographers. There’s Definitely a Prince Involved is Gideon Obarzanek’s first major work since departing Chunky Move. It asks questions such as ‘what is ballet?’ and ‘what is love?’, drawing on answers collected by Obarzanek when conducting interviews as part of his research. Swan Lake, as the quintessential ballet, is deconstructed and given a realist’s revamp, shot through with candid, sometimes amusing, often nerve-touching narration. Created alongside the choreography, Stefan Gregory’s score manipulates Tchaikovsky’s famous original, thankfully retaining its faultless essence.

The show-stealer of the second work is easily the contemporary Grand Pas de Deux, narrated by Madeleine Eastoe and danced by guest artists Sara Black and James O’Hara. The two bodies writhe and tumble with invertebrate fluidity, reminiscent of the fabulous dressmaker’s dummy in Dame Peggy van Praagh and George Ogilvie’s production of Coppelia.

For me, the piece de resistance of the evening is Stephen Page’s mesmerising Warumuk – In the Dark Night. Inspired by Yolngu families’ creation stories of the night sky, the work explores the ‘spiritual relationship between people, land and nature’. Various myths are interpreted, including those of the Milky Way, the lunar eclipse and the morning star. Dancers from Bangarra Dance Theatre and The Australian Ballet blend seamlessly, the latter embracing a more weighted movement vocabulary. Throughout, the combination of the dance, David Page’s score and Padraig O Suilleabhain’s lighting is nothing short of hypnotic, but it is Jennifer Irwin’s breathtaking costumes which blow my mind, particularly in the dance of the Seven Sisters.

Infinity is a well-balanced cross-section of the Australian dance palette. It incorporates various traditions and our unique Indigenous culture, whilst nodding to the new directions of our choreographers. Here’s to the next 50 years.

Photo: Graeme Murphy, Lana Jones, Gideon Obarzanek, Stephen Page. Photo Georges Antoni

Published by Dance Informa dance magazine – everything dance in Australia – dance news, dance auditions & dance events.