Victorian College of the Arts: "Project 3: Graduation Dance Season 2013" -
Space 28, Dodds St, South Bank; 20 November -
Working with choreographic influences from Indonesia, China and Indigenous Australia, this year’s graduating students at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) had plenty of cultural information to absorb alongside the usual technical requirements of their course. The three female choreographers who created the works for the graduation season all reference elements of their cultural background in their work, which though still contemporary, is quite varied in style and tone.
Clouds of Ash and Glass by Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal opened the program, featuring a beautiful soundtrack of string music with Javanese gamelan composed by Lou Harrison. Dusky grey scarves serve many purposes, flying about the bodies of swirling dancers like delicate smoke, or tied securely overhead and around torsos as ritual garb. Dresses with interesting geometric designs on fitted bodices complete the evocative costume design by Lexi De Silva.
Performed by large group of women and one male student, who takes on a god-like role, replete with swivelling eye movements and deeply bent, widespread knees, the piece incorporates many aspects, both culturally specific and quite abstract. Whether mourning over corpses or performing a duet connected by invisible puppet strings, creating symmetries in a long connected line or attempting a prostrate mandala formation, the ideas and material are densely packed.
In contrast, The Circle by Feng Feng Wang, is buoyant and light, working with a somewhat simpler set of concepts. Characterised by helium balloons tied to the dancers’ wrists and fluffy white clouds projected onto the backdrop, the piece begins with a line of dancers standing in the gloom.
As they begin to move into and out of a beam of bright light, the reflected glow from their balloons warms the space momentarily, before plunging back into the darkness. It’s a terrific effect, slightly marred by imperfect timing.
The dancers appear hopeful, their potential futures physicalized in the precious floating eggs. They exhale, let go, seek another path.
Technical, quasi-balletic moves set to Goldmund’s gorgeous piano in the first half of the piece lead onto scuffed-feet travelling and a rhythmical sequence set to Steve Reich’s Drumming: Part IV. Unfortunately, the later choreography barely goes beyond class exercise level, taking the dancers on circular paths around the space but not matching the energy of the music.
Frances Rings is the most accomplished choreographer of the three, yet this piece, Impermanence is not her most interesting creation. The work incorporates four large, movable light boxes, which at first, appear as four narrow, lines of light. Dancers move through the murk, and gradually, as the boxes are shifted and the side-lights come up, we begin to discern shapes, faces.
A group of girls playfully shove at each other, the violence eventually escalating into push-pull duos, the women lifting and supporting each other with confidence.
Yet it’s not until half way through the piece, when the boxes are aligned one behind the other, like a perforated wall along the midline of the stage, with just three dancers weaving in and out, that we get a sense of Rings’s capabilities and purpose. This section features some beautiful arm movements, plus a taste of the floor work Rings generally favours.
A brief male-female duet features some lovely lifts, well coordinated with the music. The shapes are reminiscent of Bangarra’s signature style, with flexed feet and angular attitudes.
Despite the moments of beauty, the intention of the work remains mostly hidden.
The two most outstanding performers amongst the students were also the annual scholarship winners, with Leah Marojevic awarded the Orloff Family Scholarship and Chloe Chignell the Dr Phillip Law Travelling Scholarship.
- Chloe Smethurst