The Australian Ballet School Showcase

Entranced from the moment the curtains open upon the dancers, it is evident that there is no such thing more beautiful than the artistry and skill of the ballet.

The Australian Ballet School prides itself on its high quality training opportunities for talented young performers, and I am thrilled to say that the talent very much shines in the 2018 Showcase directed by Lisa Pavane. Dancers from Level 1 – 8 perform under the direction of some of the best teachers Australia has to offer, and the pieces vary from contemporary to fairy tale, flamenco-inspired to the tongue-in-cheek.

The Showcase opens with a tiny ballet dancer lifting the veil upon the scene, and we begin with the masterwork of choreographer Paul Knobloch, an Australian Ballet School alumnus with the capacity to arrange 121 dancers into stunning visual formations with the Grand Défilé (a grand parade in literal translation). The Défilé is really a glorious start to this production, as the choreography is just gorgeously cinematic in its scope. Knobloch has an enormous task on hand, but manages to make this a triumph. This was the perfect opportunity to let any doubt of the calibre of the young performers disappear into the tulle.

If the audience had any doubts about the extent The Australian Ballet School could stretch its flavour, the Alegríaschoreographed by Areti Boyaci which featured on stage Spanish guitar by Werner Neumann established the Showcase as something to be reckoned with. The flair with which the performers managed keep to the 12 beat rhythm of the flamenco was an excellent choice for exhibiting the performers’ versatility.

The Don Quixote, Dryads, Act II was a charming nod to tradition, featuring Ludwig Minkus’ music, with extraordinary costumes. I enjoyed the sweep into fantasy, but admittedly craved something bolder, which I had begun to really expect after such enticing earlier numbers. I was delighted by the Wolfgang Dancechoreographed by the excellent Simon Dow to Mozart’s Allegro from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (which we know as ‘A Little Night Music’). The Level 4 students were brilliant and able to bring an enormous humour and spirit to the performance, which featured baroque white wigs and many laughs from the audience.

A standout performance for me was the wonderful troupe of male dancers in the Knobloch choreographed Valetta. Knobloch establishes himself as a master of ballet ensemble here, and the dancers are absolutely breathtaking moving works of art as they perform the classical movement which featured the flair of the late 1950s Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals.

The final act featured the elegant and fluid wonder of the Ballo Barocco, choreographed by Stephen Baynes, featuring the beautiful music of Bach. Initially created for Level 8 dancers, the Level 6 dancers took on this piece with astonishing mastery. Heart Strings was a poignant series of dances choreographed by Margaret Wilson showcasing the experiences of the Level 6 students. With humour and incredible maturity, these pieces were navigated by the students, with notable standouts in Enter the Protagonists and the Bullied.

The final performance of the night, the Danza de la Vida choreographed by Simon Dow borrowed from the tango traditions of Argentina. I found this performance a nice piece to cap the Showcase, however there was a pool of talent that I felt had been under-utilised. Despite that, it was an elegant way to end the evening, and certainly proved that The Australian Ballet School harnesses and hones the astonishing talent of its young performers.

Arts House presents NIGHTDANCE

Nightdance is the most rhythmically breathtaking performance I’ve seen this year, and potentially of all time. It’s uniquely its own thing, and you simply cannot tear your eyes away from it.

The Arts House space transforms into a nightclub that would make the most progressive amongst dancers feel the need to move towards it. A floor stretched in midnight fabric, the bodies of three dancers begin their almost alien movements towards ecstasy.

Melanie Lane directs, and her fellow dancers co-create the work. Performers Lilian Steiner, Gregory Lorenzutti and Lane herself are astonishing professionals in their craft, and Nightdance is a testament to their talent and vigour as dancers. Inspired undoubtedly from her dual base of Berlin/Melbourne, Lane offers us something refreshing and exciting.

The stamina of the performers mirrors in a short space of time those clubbers who can go all night, never tired and driven by the energy of the space. Chris Clark’s sound design and composition of electronica are deep and intense – you can really feel it in your bones, urging you to move. It’s totally cathartic and I find myself envying the appearance of their total abandon and equally contained movements.

Spanning a multitude of genres, the piece as fluid as the dancing. Once we think Nightdance is just another erotic journey to club land, we jump into cabaret, and then we return to something more alien, darker, and frighteningly futuristic. It captures optimism and the downright weird. Inspired by the clubs of Berlin, Lane’s work really captures a scene that projects the future of connection through rhythm – I think about an almost Aldous-Huxley-inspired Brave New World, where the collective reaches heightened states of consciousness through rhythm and a primal urge towards something unspoken.

Nightdance thrills us a little, and arches our brows equally. The sudden appearance of a glittering conehead is totally offbeat, and makes the audience laugh. The piece moves through the ages of time and dance, and we find ourselves about 60 minutes later into the millennium which PVC dreams are made of.

This won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Ben ‘Bosco’ Shaw’s lighting design might send some attendees into hiding, but those like myself who love to be immersed in the experience of club land will find it totally exhilarating. Lane and her team have successfully produced something hyper-modern and totally memorable.

Dislocate Presents IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK

Theatre Press was lucky to sit in once again for Dislocate’s If These Walls Could Talk…?  for the Glow Winter Arts Festival 2017. Dislocate’s marvellous physical theatre finds a memorable home with slapstick comedy and the melancholy. If you think you’re in for some light physical comedy, you would be delighted to find that Dislocate’s artists are excellent acrobats, but even more brilliant storytellers.

Dislocate was founded in 1998 by Kate Fryer and Geoffrey Dunstan for the purpose of showcasing high-quality circus acts alongside powerful narratives. They have toured extensively over the years, and were nominated for a Helpmann Award for Best Physical or Visual Theatre in 2015.

In this 2017 production, our four performers, director Fryer, Dunstan, Luke Taylor and Sam Aldham embody the lives of several decades of residents in an apartment. Generation after generation of inhabitants, starting from the 1960s, find themselves embarking on the harrowing highs and lows of life. At the close of each ‘life’ segment, the ensemble sweep in to dismantle the space in preparation for the next arrivals.

The performance is littered with polarities – on one hand we find ourselves admiring the devotion of an elderly couple remembering their youth and first flush of love for one another, and then despair when we see that they quietly follow through into mutual tragedy, and this theme continues throughout the production. Other sequences include the spirit of a lover haunting their living loved one as they groove to the music of the 1970s, and the tragi-comic suicide attempts of a man whose attempts are foiled by the higher powers of a faulty window and high-functioning ceiling lamp.

It’s unsurprising this production brings audiences in the droves and attracts critical acclaim – I laughed, gasped and sighed, all the while at the edge of my seat. If you have the chance to catch Dislocate in action, I would highly recommend it.

AsiaTopa presents DANCING WITH DEATH

As part of AsiaTopa, renowned Thai choreographer Pichet Klunchun presents Australian audiences with what he calls a dance representing a state of “limbo”.

Based on the teachings of nineteenth-century Buddhist monkLuang Pu Dulaya, “Dun” Atulo, the meaning of “limbo”, is unpacked as all creatures sharing the same “citta”, a form of consciousness. Klunchun and his performers create a collective, and often arduous dance that signifies unpredictable shifts in power, whether within the individual or in wider society.

We really don’t get what we bargain for as an audience. Admittedly, a great number of those attending the performance are unfamiliar with Klunchun’s work, the creation of a revered and formidable dancer who contemporises traditional Thai dance. At first masked and colourful dancers parade about the stage and we think: of course, traditional. Moments later, a lone figure emerges in white, movements so precise and slow that they utterly contradict the colour and wildness of the more traditional movements. The lone figure moves in a manner that recalls Japan’s own Butoh, but Klunchun is about to take us on an entirely different journey as we soon discover.

Filed onto the performance space of the State Theatre, a stage is created upon a stage. A curved and sloping giant circle, which recalls a skateboard-rink lit in a brilliant yellow is our focus. The lone figure soon climbs onto this rink, only to be followed by others, also in white, also sharing in the lone figure’s limbo. The collective movements of the dancers is hauntingly soothing at first, and the monotony of the action hypnotises. Sound designer Hiroshi Iguchi masterfully creates a soundtrack that matches the dancers in their energy – a blend of modern, ardent and repetitive sound blasts through the audience.

As the pace quickens, we, like the dancers are simply exhausted. There are noticeable shifts in the dynamic of the dancers, representing desire for closeness, conflict and desperation. Our original lone figure continues to wander in the abyss, and the other dancers leap from the limbo rink into a celebration of contemporary dance with new additions. This is a joyous moment, but the lone figure continues to wander, and Klunchun’s world eclipses on this figure.

As an audience we did not know when to clap, or what to do. Klunchun succeeded in presenting an entirely new mode of dance theatre for this audience, but it was ultimately draining and unsettling. Unfortunately the result of this is alienation; perhaps that is what Klunchun intended in the hopes of showing our own tendency to “shun the unknown and change”, falling into a “vicious cycle” of lost opportunities in relating.

Dance Partner Productions presents BURN THE FLOOR

Burn the Floor is so hot you are mesmerised by the sweat and power of the dancers until the very last number.

Producer Harley Medcalf with ballroom veterans Peta Roby and Jason Gilkison, as director and choreographers respectively, have revitalised ballroom dance in a spectacular splash of contemporary style, colour and energy. I’ve had the privilege of viewing a number of dance companies, but this one really hit the ground in a way that brought audiences to their feet for multiple standing ovations. Decades into the Burn the Floorconcept, this production continues to overwhelm and excite audiences worldwide.

You can expect high-calibre dancers from every corner of the globe bringing excellent technique in unique, sexy and high-energy scenarios.

We start in an eighteenth-century ballroom that is ferociously interrupted by one of the most high-energy Goth-glam numbers I could ever envisage. Costume designers Bret Hooperand Sharon Brown turned this PVC masterpiece into a significant shift in tone for the show. Nancy Xu wowed as she shifted her body fluidly in a structured skirt that could easily be mistaken for a hindrance.

Right from the get-go this production is breaking away from the chains of the past and using the very same chains to reconstruct and astonish its audience. It’s daring and racy, and as I watch with surprise my middle-aged mother grin with delight, I know we’re all in for a good night.

The musical numbers in Act One are an ode to the classics in music and feel. We visit the Latin Quarter and later take a trip to the world of swing. These swing numbers featuring iconic music such as ‘It Don’t Mean A Thing’, and Elvis-era inspired dance moves, are where the male dancers really shine – and they clearly love every minute. Italy’s Gustavo Viglio captivated in the swing numbers, but the male dancers overall were really outstanding here.

Act Two rocketed us into the world of Carmen. The classic story of forbidden desire played out in a darkly erotic setting – a ballroom variation of ‘Stairway to Heaven’ played by the band made up of percussionist Alysa Portelli, and guitarists Andrew Marunowski and Jose Madrid led the dancers. The loud and excitable move to “Schools Out” saw the troupe don school uniform, and the acrobatic style and energy of our performers really shone. A standout, Jemma Armstrong, furiously played the cat-and-mouse games of the classroom. Overall, the dancers really delivered such volumes of energy I was breathless merely by watching. This breathlessness continued up until the final numbers, including crowd pleaser, ‘Ballroom Blitz’, at which point the audience was clapping and cheering.

Throughout Act Two were performances by pairings. Whilst some of these were fluid and breathtaking – namely the performance of ‘Angels’, where England’s Lauren Oakley’s physicality was nothing short of exquisite – I felt many of the performances as segments lacked flow.

The Acts were also interspersed with live musical performances by the Italian Mikee Introna and Australian Sharnielle Hartley. Introna brought excellent comic relief at the beginning and close of the show, and his voice overall was impressive. Hartley’s performance was enthusiastic, but the ballads performed without the dance detracted from the intensity and sophistication of the dancers’ work.

German Cornejo's TANGO FIRE

It’s a cold winter night in Melbourne, the storm clouds are threatening overhead, but inside the Arts Centre’s Playhouse, there’s a heat emanating from the stage.

German Cornejo choreographs five couples for over two hours, including himself with the mesmerizing Gisela Galeassi. This show is highly energetic, sensuous, and immersing. By the close of the night, audiences rose to their feet, clapping and cheeringfor this attractive troupe of skilled dancers. With every effortless movement, Tango Fire was a taste of the Argentinian soul.

Part One of Tango Fire was slow to begin, with the company engaging in a Tango Foxtrot. Soon enough the rhythm, the style and energy quickened, and we were in the thick of varying tangoes. Argentine Tango has many varietals, and the dancers took their audience through these fluid, playful, and at times raw performances that exposed love stories, flirtations and sorrows.

Part One could have easily been dismissed as light entertainment,a nod to the Argentinian dance hall, but as soon as Cornejo and Galeassi stepped out into a midnight scene, with the Quarteto Fuego (the band) to dance a classic tango, we were in no doubt we were in the presence of greatness. Galeassi’s finesse, agility and beauty as a dancer are breathtaking. The eroticism of the dance came to the fore, and it is now undisputed in my mind that the tango in its varying forms is the dance of lovers.

As Tango Fire moved into Part Two, the couples performed independently. Aside from Cornejo and Galeassi, standouts included Ezequiel Lopez and Camila Alegre, who beguiled us in a partnership of heated synchronicity, and Sebastian Alvarez and Victoria Saudelli who performed a modern tango of gymnastic proportions, which conveyed a violence of love that was both beautiful and terrifying.

The standout performance for the troupe was Oblivion, where the pace softened, and the performers costumes embodied the ethereal quality of the tango. It was a tango suspended in time of languid movements, captivating the audience in a dream-like trance for its duration.

Tango Fire is a celebration of tango in its many guises, and a gorgeous troupe of performers with varying qualities to bring it to life. For those who admire the tango, this is an exciting education in its form.

You can catch Tango Fire for its final Melbourne performance on Sunday the 14 of August before it tours to Adelaide, Bendigo, Canberra and Brisbane.