Australasian Dance Collective: Relic
UAP Foundry March 28
Originally postponed because of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred, the rescheduled opening night of Australian Dance Collective’s (ADC) site-specific work, Relic, was worth the wait, and a powerful start to the company’s 40th anniversary celebrations.
Relic is the third and final work in a three-part project created by Associate Artistic Director Jack Lister on the invitation, back in 2020, of Artistic Director Amy Hollingsworth. The three works were to be connected thematically, but would span different mediums, facilitating different ways for audiences to engage. Thus, a multi-award-winning tryptic of films, Still Life came first, followed by the Playhouse, QPAC proscenium stage performance of the short work of the same name in 2021. Relic, the final piece of the creative puzzle, is a site-specific, immersive dance theatre experience for the audience.
ADC collaborated with Urban Art Projects (UAP), an institution that facilitates the creation of art for the public realm, to realise Lister’s vision for Relic, situating the work inside the cavernous interior of the UAP Foundry. As in the previous two works, Lister explores themes of mortality through the symbolism of 16th and 17th century still life paintings and the memento mori movement. This time, however, these age-old notions of mortality are reimagined through a more youthful lens of the daring sport of motorcross.
I must confess to not being a fan of promenade works, where, unless clearly directed, the audience is free to wander around or within the performance. Genuine appreciation of a work can suffer, (especially when taller audience members position themselves in front of you), as can your feet if standing for an hour or more is required. However, in Relic the performance spaces were clearly indicated. The performance was therefore easy to follow, and coming in under 60 minutes, my feet remained unscathed.
The interior of the UAP Foundry is a huge rectangular space with a cathedral-high roof and concrete floor. There are three performance areas in a line along the space, the central one a slightly raised wooden platform surrounded on all four sides by billowing sheets of semi-transparent plastic curtaining. Sections of this are moved aside to reveal the interior space as the performance progresses.
Relic is visually compelling from its opening moments where Company Artist Sam Hall, as a kind of prophetic angel with a resplendent pair of jagged, diaphanous white ‘wings’ radiating from his back, introduces the idea of mortality – “memento mori” or “remember you must die.” Images traditionally associated with this haunting phrase are repeated throughout, including guttering candles carried on outstretched palms, plumes of smoke, and replacing the ubiquitous skull, the black motorcross helmet.
Costumes, designed by Company Artist Lily Potger, are an amalgam of the motorcross uniform of black pants and jacket, with the memento mori aesthetic. The lighting, realised by Wes Bluff and Claire Browning, clearly indicates the transition from one area of focus to the next. Often the dancers are lit from behind, keeping facial details in darkness but accentuating the shape of the movement.
And the movement is extraordinary. Moving from solo to duet and ensemble configurations, it is both brash and bold with an almost robotic construct, very gestural in parts, including more detailed vibrating and flicking of the hands.
The six artists, Lilly King, Taiga Kita-Leong, Georgia Van Gils, as well as Hall, Lister and Potger are their most powerful when together in the sections of unison. However, duets feature some edgy and challenging partnering work, including vertical overhead lifts, while a physically intense solo by the statuesque Kita-Leong was riveting.
The movement is underpinned by Louis Frere-Harvey’s percussive, sonorous score, its almost liturgical rhythms often sweeping the movement along in time.
Relic builds in pace towards its end. In an assault on all the senses, Kita-Leong, back-lit in blood red, beats the air with a chequered flag in sweeping arcs around the space. Joined by the remaining dancers wielding large white flags, the collective whirring and whipping was powerfully hypnotic.
A denouement of reflection is provided by Opera Queensland Soprano, Leanne Kenneally, resplendent in a long, dark blue, full-skirted gown, as, in haunting song, she is led through the space. A brutal segue to a soundtrack of racing motor bikes then sees dancers, at break-neck speed, dash through the audience to a finish line – the final lap!
Relic is a dense, multi-layered work that begs another viewing. Sadly, its short, but I believe packed season, finished on Sunday.
- DENISE RICHARDSON