Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney
Reviewed September 18
Twofold is Sydney Dance Company’s latest double bill. It includes the return of Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela’s Impermanence alongside the world premiere of a new work choreographed by Melanie Lane, Lovelock. Both works utilise the full company roster of 17 dancers (including one trainee) but are quite different in their choreographic approach and overall effect.
Rafael Bonachela’s Impermanence was initially conceived as a response to the destruction of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in 2019, and to the bushfires that left a smoky haze hanging in Sydney Harbour for weeks on end later that year… its own premiere was delayed by one year due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. What eventually emerged back in 2021 was a sensitive, lyrical work with an evocative score by Bryce Dessner.
Now, on Twofold’s opening night, Dessner’s score for Impermanence was played live onstage by the Australian String Quartet, which actually co-commissioned the original score. David Fleischer’s set design is simple but effective, featuring a horizon-like break in the backdrop which moves from a glowing line to a gaping chasm as the work progresses; and the set itself is given additional depth and range by Damien Cooper’s lighting design.
Impermanence is episodic in structure, with a range of solos, duets, quartets and quintets that give the whole company an opportunity to show their expressive range alongside their technical prowess and virtuosity. Transitions into and out of floorwork were executed with exceptional smoothness and control by the whole cast – which allowed the meditative effect of this performance to be transmitted unbroken to the audience for the entire duration of the work (approximately one hour). Standout performances in Impermanence were given by Riley Fitzgerald, Luke Hayward, Naiara de Matos, Piran Scott, Liam Green and Emily Seymour. While standout performers in Lovelock included Ryan Pearson and Timmy Blankenship.
Melanie Lane’s Lovelock is a quirky, intriguing work that "imagines a kind of fantastical folk dance of the future". It’s not as easy to make sense of as Impermanence – but there was a definite sense of ritual and a focus on the power of the ensemble that feeds into the folk-dance concept at the heart of this work. Clark’s composition for Lovelock combines recorded percussion, cello, synthesisers, flutes and the voices of the dancers themselves. I could not make any sense of what the dancers were saying during the actual performance, but subsequent enquiries revealed these vocalisations are a combination of specific "cue calls" that translate as sounds and deconstructed love songs featuring "At Last" by Etta James; while the song recited by Naiara de Matos is a Brazilian love song called "Amor E Sexo" by Rita Lee.
Lovelock is certainly visually striking to watch. Damien Cooper’s set and lighting design initially brought the lights right down to the floor in a scene where they were semi-anthropomorphised in a techno-futurist fantasy: each individual light seemed to tilt back and forth in time with the rhythmic beat of the music and the collective rhythm of the dancers onstage.
Akira Isogawa’s costume designs started off sleek and fitted in black but they evolved as the work progressed. Pops of colour started appearing over the top of each individual costume until the cast looked like an assortment of rare and elaborately ornamented birds. The sheer variety of Isogawa’s vision contrasted with the unified approach of Aleisa Jelbart’s costume designs for Impermanence, which sat neatly within a colour palette of neutrals accented with naturalistic greens and earthy browns reminiscent of the wooden string instruments played by the Australian String Quartet.
- GERALDINE HIGGINSON