Perth International Arts Festival (PIAF) has launched its 2013 line-up and the dance selection looks promising.  At a glance it appears there are four dance works on the program.  Ballet National de Marseille brings The Truth 25 Times a Second.  From India comes Shiva Shakti by Daksha Sheth Dance Company.  WA’s STRUT dance, together with STEPS Youth Dance Company and France’s Centre Choregraphique de Grenoble will present 3G (Trois Générations) and West Australian Ballet will present their traditional “Ballet at the Quarry” season.

But wait, there’s more.   A fifth dance work has been slipped in under the banner of “Festival for families”.   As the name suggests, this is a section that profiles work that children and parents can enjoy together... but don’t be deceived.  Video excerpts of this fifth dance offering, entitled Clouds were shown at the PIAF launch and it looks like Spanish company Arcaladanza are going to be enchanting adults as much as kids.   A journey into the world of surrealist artist René Magritte, Clouds certainly looks like "serious" dance, presented with a generous dollop of fun.

And so to the four “official” dance works.

Film footage of The Truth 25 Times a Second shows a stage awash with ladders that the dancers negotiate.  Created by Ballet National de Marseille’s Artistic Director, Frédéric Flamand in collaboration with Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, The Truth 25 Times a Second uses these ladders to evoke an Escher-like building.  This represents a world of ruins and rebirths as well as forming a framework for the physical performance.

Shiva Shakti, presented by Daksha Sheth Dance Company sees traditional and contemporary Indian dance unite.  Featuring Isha Sharvani, known both as a Bollywood actress and one of India’s finest dancers, Shiva Shakti combines aerial work with a live score by composer Devissaro and his percussionist son Tao Issaro. 

3G (Trois Générations) has been created by French choreographer Jean-Claude Gallotta for STRUT dance and STEPS Youth Dance Company.  A single dance score is performed by three generations of dancers, expressing the different stages we go through in life.  From childhood, to adulthood to maturity, each generation interprets the choreography from the perspective of that age and stage of life.

A PIAF institution, “Ballet at the Quarry” is presented annually at Perth’s beautiful Quarry Amphitheatre.  This year’s program includes Glen Tetley’s Voluntaries, set to Francis Poulenc’s "Concerto in G minor for organ, strings and timpani".  Voluntaries was choreographed for the Stuttgart Ballet at the end of 1973 as a memorial to John Cranko, the Artistic Director who had passed away that year.  It is considered one of Tetley’s most significant creations.  “Ballet at the Quarry” will also feature to premieres, Yes, I’ll Move for You by Cass Mortimer Eipper and Jubilate by Daniel Roberts.


www.perthfestival.com.au

The Truth 25 Times a Second.  Photo:  Pino Pipitone.

Shiva Shakti.  Photo:  David De Souza

3G (Trois Générations).  Photo:  Christophe Canato

"Ballet at the Quarry".  Photo:  Jon Green