State Theatre Centre of WA
Reviewed 1 June
West Australian Ballet’s triple bill “State: Contemporary Vision” feels like a watershed moment for WA dance.
Featuring one work from a local independent choreographer and one presented in collaboration with Co3 Contemporary Dance, this fourth iteration of WAB’s annual contemporary dance program marks the first time we’ve seen makers from WA’s contemporary dance community featured in the program. Guest artists have previously hailed from interstate or overseas.
While the name “State” is drawn from the venue, this shift feels both thematically appropriate and exciting, perhaps heralding a new era for WA dance.
Opening the program is the visitor, Polish choreographer Robert Bondara, with a new work, Nothing Twice. His starting point is the poem of the same name by Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska, which explores the passing of time.
Nothing Twice is clean and uncluttered. Clad in stylish and sexy black, with women in pointe shoes, the 15 dancers first appear in a corridor of light that follows Jagoda Chalcińska’s unfolding projection of bubbles fizzing across the backdrop’s breadth.
Against Portico Quartet’s score, a dramatic mix of keyboard, percussion and synthesized sounds, the ensemble work is peppered with angular elbows, shrugging shoulders and rolling heads. Particularly pleasing is a stylised shoulder shimmy, deliberate and percussive, that gently subsides to a subtle finger-click.
Solos, duets and trios intersect the ensemble work, all performed with polish by Saturday night’s cast, but a pas de deux by Juan Carlos Osma and Alexa Tuzil was a highlight. In pools of light the pair channelled Portico’s jazzier sounds, ricocheting into a swirling lift that saw Tuzil arched back against Osma.
So far, so beautiful, but the publicity blurb for “State” invites the audience to “challenge your perception of ballet and expect the unexpected”. Bondara’s work, pleasing as it is, is standard fare for WAB audiences.
Enter mattering, by WA-based independent dance artist James O’Hara, a work that grapples with existential themes, created for this program.
Choreographed for six dancers, mattering appears to be structured improvisation, making it conceptually quite different from anything I’ve seen from this company. In garments that sit somewhere between athleisure wear and the catwalk (by Rhiana Katz), Saturday night’s cast moved to James Hazel’s layered and at times cacophonous score with that organic quality that is found in improvisation: sculptural, but punctuated with surprising flurries and hiccup-like twitches. Particularly enjoyable to watch was recent recruit Tom Umseher, whose penchant for the chaotic injected a touch of humour. The hooded Indiana Scott caught the eye with stealthy, feline movement.
While the dancers were pleasing to watch as individuals, this performance lacked cohesion between dancers, and occasional physical interactions sometimes felt awkward. This may, however, improve as the season continues and it’s pleasing to see WAB pushing ballet into new places, as promised.
The final work on the program, CARNIVALE.6, is inspired by the dancing plague of 1518. The inexorable nature of its score, Ravel’s Bolero, is a perfect vehicle for a work that teeters on the fine line between agony and ecstasy. It is performed by a cast of 14 that includes five guest artists from Co3 Contemporary Dance.
Created by Co3 Artistic Director Raewyn Hill for the Australian Ballet in 2012, CARNIVALE isn’t new to Perth – a version was performed at Co3’s premiere season in 2015.
Made in collaboration with WAB guest AD David McAllister, this sixth edition sees Hill weave in references to the Tarantella, another dance with its origins in compulsion. Like earlier iterations, CARNIVALE.6 is as relentless as its score – the cast of 14 WAB and Co3 dancers do not stop moving for the work’s duration.
But while we still see demanding lunges, crisp hand gestures and split second direction changes, this version is softened by sweeping balancés and by Bruce McKinven’s diaphanous golden tunics, released by surging gallops or a dancer swung into the air as though to heaven. It’s heady stuff and was beautifully danced by Saturday night’s cast, with Co3’s Alice Kell a particular standout for her expansive style and beatific energy.
The dancers’ exhilaration was matched by the audience response. CARNIVALE.6 makes a fitting finale to a triple bill that feels full of hope for Western Australia.
- NINA LEVY
'State' opened on May 31 and continues until June 8. https://waballet.com.au/state2024