Sydney Festival kicks off 7 January 2016 and the dance line-up includes work from Rosas (Belgium) and a plethora of Australian choreographers covering a range of dance genres.
The Festival line-up includes two works from Rosas. The first is Fase, by Anne Teresa De Keermaeker. Created in 1982, Fase is set to four pieces by American composer Steve Reich and is danced by De Keersmaker herself, alongside Tale Dolven. Fase is an interplay between music and movement, bodies and light. It combines delicacy and chaos, simplicity and complexity. A minimalist dance, it is an hour long and consists of three duets and one solo, and is considered to be the starting point of the contemporary dance movement that developed in Flanders in the 1980s. Fase plays Sydney Opera House 9-11 January.
The second work from Rosas, Vortex Temporum, is from the other end of De Keersmaker’s repertoire. Set the a score of the same name by the late composer Gerard Grisy, Vortex Temporum sees seven dancers and six musicians share the stage. The become inextricable entwined, each dancer translating the sounds of a particular instrument into action. Dance Australia has a competition running to win tickets to Vortex Temporum – read more here. Vortex Temporum plays Carriageworks 15-18 Jaunary.
One of Australia’s leading hip-hop dance artists, Nick Power, will present Cypher, a work based around hip-hop’s most important ritual – the circle where dancers vie for the open space in the centre to perform their set. Four battle-hardened b*boys push the boundaries of movement to the booming beats of sound designer Jack Preest. Keeping the crowd deliberately close, the dancers look the audience in the eye, to give them a glimpse into b*boy culture. Cypher plays Riverside Theatres in Parramatta, 19-23 January.
From North East Arnhem Land comes Djuki Mala, Djuki meaning ‘chooky’ with a Yolngu accent, and Mala meaning ‘mob’. This is a fusion of traditional Indigenous culture, contemporary dance and storytelling. Since their 2007 clip of “Zorba the Greek” went viral, this group has played to audiences around the world. Interspersed with video, the work tell the story of the genesis of Djuki Mala, using timing, comedy and clowning. Djuki Mala plays the Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent, 21-23 January.
Bangarra Dance Theatre will present Stephen Page’s feature film SPEAR. The film follows the journey of a young Aboriginal man, Djali, as he tries to understand what it means to be a man with ancient traditions in a modern world. SPEAR address the understanding and awareness of the long and often painful history of European colonisation in Australia and its effect in the Indigenous population. SPEAR was originally created in 2000 as a dance theatre work for the stage. SPEAR screens at the Sydney Opera House, 23 and 24 January.
Stephanie Lake will premiere her new work Double Blind as part of the About an Hour series. Double Blind is inspired, in part, by studies like The Milgram Experiment, a social psychology study in which subjects were asked to obey orders that conflicted with their own moral standards. In response to this, Lake interrogates the perils of obedience. Dancers Alisdair Macindoe, Alana Everett, Amber Haines and Kyle Page twist and turn, vacillate and vibrate, and, ultimately, bend and break under authority. Double Blind plays Carriageworks 19-21 January.
Cut the Sky, presented by Broome-based dance theatre company Marrugeku, is a meditation of humanity’s frailty in the face of its own actions. Directed by Rachael Swain, the work explores Australia’s past, present and future through an Aboriginal lens. Cut the Sky draws on Indigenous knowledge systems to contemplate climate change, land rights and an uncertain future. Made up of five acts, the various elements are drawn together by the poems of Edwin Lee Mulligan, which are woven through the work. Cut the Sky plays the Sydney Opera House, 14-17 January.
For more information about these works, including bookings head to http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au
Photos top to bottom: Fase, photo: Anne Van Aerschot; Double Blind, photo: Pippa Samaya; Cypher.
