Queensland University of Technology: “Dance 16”

Queensland University of Technology: “Dance 16”
Gardens Theatre, QUT, 1 November

The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) dance graduation season saw yet another cohort of third year students prepare to launch itself into the profession. This year, five works, each by a different chorographer, again showcased all three years of the BFA degree. The degree’s strong focus on contemporary dance was reflected in the mix, although a nod was also made to the classical and commercial genres.

Gareth Belling’s Before, choreographed on the third year dancers, opened the program. Set to Peteris Vask’s String Quartet No 4, this neo-classical work en pointe begins with the dancers upright, in a single line across the stage. Dressed in unifying black leotards and track pants, the dancers group, disband, and regroup forming sculptural shapes and making interesting choreographic patterns. An athletic and grounded short solo for the only male, Jacob Watton, although performed with clarity, is somehow out of step with this neo-classicism, but not so a later, very lithesome and fluid duet. Apart from some minor timing issues when in unison, all seventeen dancers acquitted themselves well. However, the work, set within the dancers’ capabilities, was choreographically not as musically responsive as it might have been.

Joseph Simons’s A Tragic Love Story provided the pizzazz of the evening, with a condensed reworking of the tragedy of Giselle, told as a 10-minute commercial jazz number. The first year dancers seemed to relish the chance to strut their stuff to classics such as “Shake a Tail Feather”, “Let’s Get it On”, and “Thriller”, with crisp, dynamically percussive disco moves. Jessica Dick, in a red dress, was a sassy and seductive Giselle to Brock Fiedler’s duplicitous Albrecht, while the action moved around a bar, mid stage, which was also used effectively to layer the action. It was a light-hearted beginning to the second half.

Second year dancers also performed only the one work, a remount of Timothy Farrer’s renamed Pint Size 2017 (originally choreographed in 2011 for QUT). To the music of Aaron Martin, Ezio Bosso, and Sascha Budinski, the dancers gradually break out of a concentrated huddle centre stage, with rhythmic, pulsating movement that marries beautifully with the tinkling percussiveness of the compiled score. Flesh coloured socks also allow sweeping, sliding movements that together with a fluidity of the upper body, made the work easy to watch.

Two other works performed by third year dancers were an excerpt from Graeme Murphy’s Grand, and the final work, Shadenfreude by Richard Causer. Literally translating as “damage-joy”, or taking pleasure in the misery of others, Shadenfreude is a dense work, with a slow first movement that develops in tempo to include crisp staccato movement and off-balance partnering. A ‘mad’ cake dance has three dancers each smash their head repeatedly into a cake-shaped creamy mass sitting on top of a square plinth, followed by a longer section where the dancers carry a long vegetable-like object between their teeth. Puzzling, but intriguing. The very tall, auburn-haired Watton again stood out for his distinctive physicality and command of the stage.

The short excerpt from Murphy’s Grand, "Danzas Argintinas No.2OK", remounted on the dancers by Tracey Carrodus, was the beautifully crafted, simply displayed jewel in the evening’s program. Eight female dancers follow one another onto the stage, repeating an undulating but stylised motif of the upper body and arms as they emerge. Dressed in Akira Isogawa designed black gowns, with jagged detailing on the split skirts, the dancers occupy one half of the stage while pianist Brett Sturdy and a baby grand occupy the other. There is a classical sensibility to Murphy’s choreography and the dancers met the brief.

It was pleasing to see a larger cohort of graduating students this year, and the standard across the years has consolidated. Graduates of QUT can be found in all areas of the profession, and doubtless these dancers will also follow that well-established trend.

– DENISE RICHARDSON