Reviewed October 29
Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne
If the first two instalments of DanceX left viewers in any doubt, Part Three confirmed that dance in Australia is indeed a broad church. From pointe work to Yawuru language, robotics to string quartets, the third program provided more dissonance but also more thrills.
Gracing Melbourne’s stages for the first time was the new-look Australian Dance Theatre, presenting the standout work of the evening, The Third by Daniel Riley. In a liminal space of purple hues and hazy edges, six exquisitely precise dancers inscribed the air with explorations of memory and motion. In a mostly abstract palette, frenetic hands and razored elbows punctuated liberal phrases of low-hanging torsos and rippling floorwork. But smartly placed imagery of a deeply human nature – exhausted collapses or a growing crowd swallowing an individual – anchored the work’s emotional core. Riley’s composition was subliminally intricate; seemingly idiosyncratic ideas were deftly woven into surging ensembles, greying the boundaries between self and other. And technically, the ensemble excelled in this physically demanding work – a hallmark of the ADT spirit but rendered here in an entirely fresh form.
Lucas Jervies, whose last work on the company was the monumental Spartacus in 2018, delivered Imposter – a curious ballet inspired by the myth of the “artistic genius”. Court dances and baroque etiquette refracted through the opening sequences, while parallel lines and contemporary rhythms emerged later in the piece. The program note suggests this was an exploration of the tension between “the old and the new”, but without a clearer structural dichotomy, the piece felt more like a bundle of murky ideas. Unflattering grey-gold costumes and an under-rehearsed, mostly very junior, cast made Imposter an underwhelming experience.
The most aesthetically impressive work of the night was Chunky Move’s short but potent AB_TA_Response – branded as a new commission but seemingly a repackaged version of Antony Hamilton’s largescale work Token Armies. As with the 2019 original, the visual language of sci-fi militarism was its undeniable strength. An understated duet between two Stormtrooper-lookalikes (Tra Mi Dinh and Amber McCartney) was the crux of the work, defined by its sharp head tilts and mechanical gestures linked by soft and silky pivots. In the shadows around them, a massive semi-robotic puppet knelt and stood like an ambling beast, while another dancer had the underwhelming task of pushing a large TV around the stage. With ample moodiness and slick aesthetics, the piece added nice variety to the evening’s program. But the absence of any choreographic arc meant AB_TA_Response would have fared better as a gallery installation rather than a theatre show.
Closing the program was Marrugeku’s Gudirr Gudirr – a commanding solo by the Broome-based company’s artistic co-director Dalisa Pigram (co-choreographed with Belgian dance maker Koen Augustijnen). Both a requiem for Indigenous identity and a declaration of its future, the work used spoken word, film and movement to layer personal and political histories. Humorous tales of “fishing with dad” pushed up against protestations of colonial violence and structural racism. Characters emerged and dissolved in fleshy form, while more abstract explorations played out through grounded phrases and soaring aerials on a stage-high fishing net. Despite some stumbled dialogue and a stubborn prop on opening night, Pigram delivered a compelling performance, navigating the work’s shifting tones with precision and subtlety.
- RHYS RYAN