The Australian Ballet School: “Showcase 2015” -
State Theatre, Arts Centre, 20 September -
It is always delightful to see the emerging dancers of the Australian Ballet School in this annual presentation. The students were challenged by a program of technical complexity, interpretative maturity and divergent choreographic styles.
As the program opener, Simon Dow’s Divertissement gave students at each level some very meaty choreography to contend with. It also delivered everything that an audience might expect from a classical training institution - white tutus, massed corps and featured dancers. We were treated to some real technical accomplishment - strong grand allegro, beautiful turns, neat ensemble work - all delivered with evident passion from the dancers.
However, as dancer after dancer struggled to make clean and assured recoveries from their spectacular leaps and turns, it became apparent that some of the choreography was slightly out of their reach. The judgment of staff in guiding students to performance readiness is crucial here since dancers will always try to push themselves to achieve whatever they are given to perform.
Dancers need to be stretched but also in control of their technique when performing for an audience. They need to go into a performance free to explore the performative dimension of the choreography and their developing artistry rather than with fear or doubt that they will pull off the steps.
Three shorter works occupied the middle of the program and were danced by senior students. All contemporary, they brought very different flavours to the program. Level 8 students tackled Wiyabal by Jesse Martin. Referencing Indigenous language and ritual, this work is presented as a sinister revenge narrative. Its drama would surely have appealed to the dancers but the choreographic structure lacks sophistication. Montana Rubin and Edward Smith danced as their imaginary counterparts with beautiful control and elegance, and the cast of sisters and ensemble worked well with the material. The work, however, seems somewhat disconnected, especially in the transitions between sections which are all effected by the dancers run on and off in black-outs. The use of songs as a musical score feels trivialising of the dance and the costuming lacks coherence.
Choreographing for students requires experience and skill and, although containing some lovely moments and beautiful choreographic phrases, in this context Wiyabal felt like a piece that wasn't sure of its identity.
Level 7 boys and a solo girl did a wonderful job with Margaret Wilson's Invisible Icon, a pacey abstract piece with driving rhythms and scope for showing individual and group strengths. There's a tribal feel in the music that gives way to sections that could conjure medieval, Latin American or even Indian atmospheres. Tene Ward was strong and fluid as the soloist and conveyed tenderness and rapport when ably partnered. This level showed great style.
An extract from Graeme Murphy's Grand closed this part of the program. It was a reminder of the wonderful inventiveness of this choreography and, although challenging, was danced exceedingly well by level 8 dancers. Alongside the piano, played by Paul Brickhill, dancers interpreted the complex movement with beauty and confidence. The pas de trois was poised. Girls with luscious articulations through their backs and boys physicalising the scurrying piano notes brought just the right mood to each section. Although this was a selection from different parts of the original work, the distillation worked as a whole.
To close the program, Robert Ray reprised a 1989 work for the boys of the school in this centenary year of Gallipoli. The Warriors is based on the letters of two brothers who survived Gallipoli but died a day apart in another battle in 1916.
Soldiers walk onto the stage one by one and assemble as a group to extracts of letters being read. The lighting and design are reminiscent of a vintage newsreel with many tableaux suggested and an unreal brightness to the colour. The work is quite atmospheric in the way the physical language draws on stock visual imagery of men at war but for the same reason it also feels old-fashioned. This impression is intensified by the Percy Grainger score. The male dancers did a good job of individualising the soldiers through their acting. It is questionable whether this ballet was the best showcase for the male dancers, though it was certainly a contrast with the rest of the program.
The first showcase under new director, Lisa Pavane, this was an ambitious and interesting program.
- SUSAN BENDALL
Photos: Sergey Konstantinov. Click on thumbnails for captions.