Transit Dance Company: "Every Inch of Me" -
Arts House Meat Market, 20 June -
Paul Malek has become a well-known figure in Melbourne dance circles, partly due to his incredible work ethic. Over the last few years, he has divided his time between choreographing for So You Think You Can Dance, creating full-length productions and putting together huge industry showcase nights. This year, he opened a contemporary dance school called Transit Dance.
The dancers performing in "Every Inch of Me" are part of Transit Dance’s finishing course, designed for young dancers on the cusp of leaving training. As part of their studies, the students have worked with Malek, as well as choreographers Daniel Jaber and Amy Hollingsworth, to create three new contemporary pieces.
Jaber’s piece, Under, uses a patchwork of pop songs strung together to deal with various stages of romantic relationships. Dressed in black outfits (skimpy bottoms for the women and jeans for the men) the dancers are required to be fierce, pushing through scenes of violent manipulation, simulated sex and virtuosic dancing, creating a collision of ballet technique with a music video aesthetic. The blend of sensual head rolls and thigh-gripping embraces with hyper-extended legs and graceful port de bras is something of a clash of sensibilities, a discord that is heightened by the musical pastiche.
Adelaide-based Jaber is highly qualified. He was recently appointed artistic director of Leigh Warren Dance, and created a full–length piece, Nought, for Australian Dance Theatre in 2013. Yet aside from some spectacular turns and lifts, what he has created for Transit Dance feels scrappy, and his seeming reliance on the young dancers for input makes the piece feel melodramatic, self-indulgent and immature.
Former dancer and rehearsal director at Sydney Dance Company, Amy Hollingsworth, has reached a far more cohesive result in her work. Entitled Two bars of isolation, the dance explores the pitfalls of social media and modern relationships, set to a series of classical music pieces. The music is interspersed with recordings of spoken word created for the piece, which are mostly clunky gossip sessions, paired with illustrative, humorous gestural action.
Hollingsworth’s passages of pure dance are well structured and cleanly performed. The piece reaches a climax when the dancers swirl into a maelstrom of individual action inside a large circle of light. Graceful lifts puncture the organised chaos, just like glamorous social media posts rising to the top of the pile. At times the influence of Sydney Dance Company director Rafael Bonachela can be seen, in the music selection, the structure of the choreography and even some of the movement, but Hollingsworth’s creation is none the worse for that. It finishes strongly, with a lone, melancholy dancer isolated, though she is surrounded by people just an arm’s length away.
Malek’s piece, Every Inch of Me, is the most theatrical of the three, exploring the experiences of young dancers. Lined up as though at an audition, they compete for our attention, telling us their name, age and ambitions by shouting over each other. The competition becomes physical, as they claw and push their way to the front of the group. Other themes that Malek and the dancers explore include body image, rejection, romantic love, criticism and abuse. It’s a rollercoaster ride, with many costume changes and some adult themes. Malek is often drawn to drama and this piece is no exception, with plenty of crying and angst amongst the well-directed dancing. There’s skill in the way he structures his scenes, and using a unified soundtrack helps to draw the various themes together.
Every Inch of Me was well-suited to these fledgling artists, who made the most of every opportunity to show their personalities and their acting skills as well as their considerable dancing ability.
- Chloe Smethurst