Perth International Arts Festival -
West Australian Ballet: "Ballet at the Quarry" -
Quarry Amphitheatre, 6 February -
West Australian Ballet's Quarry season under the stars this year is an absorbing, classy quadruple bill, which is brilliantly performed by the dancers.
The première performance of Hold The Fourth by up-and-coming choreographer Daniel Roberts opened the programme. In an intensely musical response, Roberts weaves inventive movement to the sounds of Max Richter, Hans Zimmer and young West Australian composer Caitlin Woods. Blurring the distinctions between classical and contemporary dance, with the ladies on demi-pointe, Roberts succeeds in creating abstract dance with a perceptible and interesting heart. In stylish grey/black unitards designed by Bruce McKinven, the nine dancers gave flawless performances in their blended trios, duos, groups and solos. A striking lighting design by Jon Buswell, with overhead spots and an illuminated strip, created silhouettes and sculptural shapes. Principals Jayne Smeulders and Matthew Lehmann were breathtaking in a duet of profound beauty and sadness to Richter's "On The Nature of Daylight", with Claire Hill and Andre Santos standouts. Craig Lord-Sole oversaw rehearsals of this enthralling new work in Roberts's absence.
William Forsythe's Steptext followed and unsurprisingly fuelled most of the after-show discussion. With costumes & lighting also designed by Forsythe, who will shortly join Paris Opera Ballet as associate choreographer, Steptext was created in 1985. It was ground-breaking in its day and still provocative today. With one female and three male dancers, Forsythe toys with balletic language and musical and theatrical conventions. To J.S. Bach's Partita No. 2 in D minor, the work is hugely demanding of dancers, audiences and music aficionados, with off-centre, angled positions en pointe, a constant shifting of weight and balance between dancers, some deliberately distorted recorded music, musical sections which suddenly stop, and unexpected blackouts.
Performing this difficult work at an outdoor venue like the Quarry added to the sense of challenging theatrical conventions in dance, but with outstanding performances by Florence Leroux-Coléno, Alessio Scognamiglio, Christopher Hill and Christian Luck and impeccable staging by Kathryn Bennetts, the result was a triumph for them.
Clad in body-hugging vivid-red, Leroux-Coléno was compelling as she flaunted her formidable technique, virtuosity, extreme flexibility and a cool, 'je ne sais quoi' attitude. Scognamiglio, Hill and Luck danced strongly in their solo sections, and managed the extremely demanding partnering skilfully.
Concluding the first half was Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's neo-classical La Pluie, with Sandy Delasalle (en pointe) making a very welcome return to the stage after a two-year hiatus. Partnered by Matthew Lehmann, the two dancers gave a master class in artistry, grace and control in this gentle, magical, gem of a pas deux set to J.S. Bach's exquisite Goldberg Variation - "Aria da Capo" with Glenn Gould's faint humming audible on the recording. All too soon, the work ended as (artificial) rain fell softly from above as they danced.
Re-worked for the dancers of West Australian Ballet, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's ingenious Zip Zap Zoom with video by Javier Velazquez and lighting design by Daniel Ranger and a cast of eighteen provided an exhilarating and highly entertaining finale to the evening. Music by Bart Rijnink, Michel Banabila, Juliette Gréco, Mikis Theodorakis, Dr Dre, MC Solaar, in a catchy mix of French rap and songs, and some zany costumes by Yso, set the scene for many laugh-out-loud 'games'. A giant LED screen across the back of the stage transformed the Quarry, a video game with graphics and audio voice appeared on the screen, and dancers as avatars responded hilariously to prompts on the screen. In a terrific ensemble performance, Matthew Lehmann and Andre Santos in the sequence to the Zorba the Greek theme, and Claire Hill, Victoria Maughan, Melissa Boniface and the acrobatic Liam Green warranted a special mention.
Try not to miss it.
Margaret Mercer