Carcaça
Marco da Silva Ferreira
Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA
Reviewed: February 8, 2025
The Wild Between the Stars: Ballet at the Quarry
West Australian Ballet
Quarry Amphitheatre
Reviewed: February 13, 2025
New Perth Festival director Anna Reece is a contemporary dance advocate and the intense, exuberant 75 minutes that is Marco da Silva Ferreira’s C A R C A Ç A was an exhilarating reminder that she understands what makes great dance.
Portuguese choreographer da Silva Ferreira came to contemporary dance via street dance styles, and this personal history underpins his 2023 work C A R C A Ç A. Meaning “carcass”, C A R C A Ç A, he says, explores not only the place of dance in contemporary culture, but the tension between collective and individual identities.
If this sounds a little dry, the result is anything but. Accompanied by a score composed and played live by percussionist João Pais Filipe and electronic musician Luís Pestana, 10 dancers take their audience on a journey of hi-octane stylistic collisions between traditional Portuguese folkloric steps, African-dance-rooted street styles and contemporary dance.
Percussion builds from trickling to driving, punctuated by rhythms created by dancers’ calls and the squeak of their sneakered feet. As Pestana produces washes of electronic sound, the movement surges; soon the dancers’ black cutout lycra garments are augmented with structured technicolour layers that flare and fly. Often the ensemble moves together; repetitive steps that rock, ball-change, march; arms swinging, torsos spiralling. As the energy snowballs, the movement becomes kaleidoscopic, a whirlpool of dancers swirling in and out of a magnetic centre.
That barely contained energy manifests as solos that pop and fizz from the mass. A personal favourite sees dancer Nala Revlon whip her mass of spiral curls so that it becomes the soloist. Poignant minor key harmonies of the accompanying song feel ancient in contrast with Revlon’s wild club-like undulations. Crowded around her, the dancers’ provide a rhythmic spoken-word chorus, a bridge between music and movement.
But the power of this work lies in its final sections, in which the dancers coalesce to form a giant scarlet mouth that sings a song warning against the rise of facism. It’s all too relevant at a time when it seems like every day brings another bombshell from the US President. Perhaps it is democracy that is the carcass of the title?
The message “All Walls Fall”, scrawled on a cleverly used glow-in-the-dark tarkett, provides a luminous moment of hope. It’s followed by a fiery finale, and as the embers died, the Saturday night audience rose to its feet, transported. C A R C A Ç A is an anthem for our times.
Opening simultaneously with C A R C A Ç A was West Australian Ballet’s annual Festival offering, “Ballet at the Quarry”. With David McAllister entering his second year as WAB’s guest artistic director, his stamp is revealing itself; this year’s “Quarry” sees three new works by Australian choreographers showcased, a shift away from the focus on overseas makers in the program’s recent iterations.
First up is the neoclassical work for which the bill is named, The Wild Between the Stars, by New Zealand-based choreographer Loughlan Prior. This work draws parallels between human experience and the “vast beauty, mystery, and constant evolution of the cosmos,” evoked by the Quarry setting.
Like its energetic score (Judd Greenstein/Mark Dancigers), in which various instruments weave and overlap, The Wild Between the Stars has a chaotic energy. Solos, duets, trios and ensembles sweep in and out, often leaving all-too-fleeting impressions of silver-clad bodies, undulating limbs, swift pirouettes, springing sautes.
The slowdown in the final pas de deux of interplaying limbs, beautifully danced in this performance by Alexa Tuzil and Juan Carlos Osma, feels better aligned with the backdrop of majestic gum trees and vast sky that helped to inspire the work.
I can’t recall the last time an independent West Australian choreographer featured on the Quarry line-up, so the inclusion of Tara Gower, a Yawaru woman from Broome, is a welcome change. Gower delivers the goods with Ripples, an exploration of her cultural “connection to land, saltwater and freshwater”.
Initially it seems the grounded, supple aesthetic of two guest First Nations dancers, Kiarn Doyle and Maddison Fraser, won’t integrate with the uplifted style of WAB’s dancers. But as this contemporary ballet unfolds, Gower cleverly blends the two; retires on pointe become avian, arching lifts become fluid dives in subterranean light. Another highlight sees the ensemble of 22 dancers burst into two clusters – one male and one female – that pulse and breathe.
A mesmerising work, Ripples was sensationally danced by both guests and company in the casting viewed.
The program’s finale, Concerto Anniversary, is a joyful neoclassical celebration of the 150th birthday of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 by Melbourne-based choreographer Lucas Jervies, who makes good on his promise to lean into the score’s flamboyance.
The drama of the famed melodic motif is complemented by sections featuring all 18 dancers in unison couples. Double fouette pirouettes are striking, as is a series of interlacing pas de chats. It’s underlined with humour, injected in flourishes also featured in this playful work’s many pas de deux and pas de trois.
In metallic golds and bronzes, Thursday evening’s cast gave a performance that shimmered, literally and figuratively. Particularly notable were Indiana Scott for her snappy footwork, Kassidy Thompson for her crisp pirouettes, Charles Dashwood and Ruben Flynn-Kann for their fabulously fast batterie and excellent partnering, and Mayume Noguromi and Julio Blanes for their eye-catching pas de deux.
It was a fitting conclusion to an impressive program - kudos to David McAllister and the choreographers, dancers and designers.
“The Wild Between the Stars: Ballet at the Quarry” continues until 1 March 2025
- Reviewed by Nina Levy