Playhouse, QPAC, June 14
With just six dancers, Expressions Dance Company’s creativity goes beyond the choreography we see on stage – it extends to delivering more bang for its funding buck.
Throughout the course of its 33-year history the company has forged international collaborations, the latest with Hong Kong's City Contemporary Dance Company, the second in EDC’s Chinese Australian Dance Exchange Project 2015-2020. The resulting triple bill, “4Seasons”, offers contrasting expressions of one theme: the seasons.
In addition to the fruit of cross-cultural artistic exchange, there’s an immediate tangible benefit in bringing CCDC to Brisbane audiences: the physical impact of expanded dancer numbers. This has been used to maximum – and glorious – effect in the program’s eponymous conclusion by EDC Artistic Director Natalie Weir, to provide a cast of 20 whose energy exploded from the stage on opening night.
First on the program though, was Summer, Kristina Chan’s sombre exploration of the dystopian future that may be awaiting us. Summer immediately captures the apathetic languor of oppressive muggy heat. But here there is no escaping it; humanity is utterly at the mercy of the elements.
Chan’s dire vision is perfectly evoked by a set cloth that ominously dominates the stage: whether hanging above, conveying a blazing sun behind haze, or slowly unfurling to encroach on the inhabitants’ breathing space, or dropping completely and engulfing them in a gleaming silver terrain. Lawmanray’s lighting transforms Cindy Ho Pui-shan’s versatile design.
On opening night the cloth’s premature release required a restart, but the 13 committed performers – who co-created the movement – made us forget the mishap. They potently personifed the confronting scenario; buffeted, tossed and turned, they also fought their fate.
Although visually striking, the work’s second section is less clear in its purpose, and a longer pause punctuating the work’s end would have eradicated audience confusion leading into the second piece on the bill, Day After Day, by CCDC Assistant Artistic Director Dominic Wong.
While also reflective in theme, this quirky work lightened the mood, with the EDC dancers cutting striking figures in white suits and busting cool moves that ranged from intricate and twitchy to elongated and arcing.
Marvellous balance and control were also on show. In partnering work, the most memorable image was of Alana Sargent being hoisted from behind onto the lofty heights of Jake McLarnon’s shoulders, and walking down his front as if descending steps.
Then there was the metronomic undercurrent the stripped-down form of Bruce Wong provided. During the work’s course he traverses, in slow-motion, the back and side of the stage, juxtaposed against the parade of dynamic urban interactions and disconnections… perhaps representing the steady but inexorable internal journey and passage of time that continues, whatever our social detours and relationship cycles.
Lastly, Weir’s interpretation of the program’s theme, 4Seasons, represents the seasons of life through four relationship stages. With Max Richter’s recomposition giving Vivaldi a contemporary edge, she has revelled in painting broad and bold movement strokes with her extra bodies.
Amidst this vibrant landscape of unison and canon, couples emerge and dissolve in nuanced portraits: the solemnly tender youth of Spring (Alana Sargent and Ivan Chan); Summer’s brewing storm clouds, portrayed with subtle gestural poignancy by Richard Causer and Bobo Lai; a supportive equilibrium and respect in Autumn (Elise May and Yve Yu) and finally, the ageing of Winter, its reflective acceptance and composure conveyed by Jake McLarnon and the remarkable Yang Qiao. At 52, Qiao exemplifies the commanding yet understated poise of mature artistry.
The emotional articulation of Weir’s choreography in 4Seasons impresses, as does her continued inventiveness in partnering, finding fresh lifts, positions and manoeuvres that perfectly accent or express the duet’s feeling.
The two companies are clearly in sync in ethos and expression. Typically viewers will connect more with some works, or sections, in a mixed bill than others, but their variety – and the different places they can take us – is a spice to savour.
- OLIVIA STEWART
"4Seasons" plays QPAC until June 22.
Pictured top: Natalie Weir's 4Seasons. Photo: Mak.