Melbourne City Ballet: Play/Rewind

Melbourne City Ballet: "Play/Rewind"
MetanoiaTheatre, Brunswick Mechanics' Institute, 27 May

The more I see of Victorian ballet companies, the more in love with them I am. Melbourne City Ballet has pulled off another absolutely delightful, rigorous and intelligently considered program - "Play/Rewind". This time it is a suite of contemporary works with pieces from Yuiko Masukawa, Michael Pappalardo and Brendan Bradshaw and featuring a feel-good closer from the company's finishing year students in collaboration with artistic staff. The works are a combination of new and restaged pieces and I saw the second of three casts perform.

A hard and gritty start came in the form of 8-Bit, a streety fast-paced short work by company principle Yuiko Masukawa. This dance for two males and two females is inspired by the video game "SteetFighter" and while referencing simple contrasts and mechanistic moves of the game, it renders them surprisingly human. Action starts and halts, light is sparse and harsh and a pulsing, chugging sound score propels the movement forward. The work was engaging and strongly executed by the dancers. The energy of the combative, theatrical street fight pushed to the last moment.

This jolting start to the evening was tempered by a lovely, delicate work by Michael Pappalardo; Lune. Set to Debussy's Clair de Lune, it transmits a sense of fragility early on in its meditation on relationships. The neo-classical choreography was well-suited to the dancers and the movement through and across phrases, with one melting into the next, lends a lyrical dynamism that is charming. Pas de deux work between Brendan Bradshaw and Carolina Pais was especially beautiful with very accomplished technique and expressivity from both dancers. The work ends with a more contemporary feel.

The most outstanding work of the program came from Brendan Bradshaw. His [inner] is a work reprised from an earlier season and choreographed and performed originally for the Royal New Zealand Ballet. Here we enjoyed first class choreography and performances. The choreography has real complexity and beauty and again exquisite pas de deux featuring junior artist Carolina Pais. The work starts slowly and in silence as a lone female dancer enters, pausing with leisurely articulations of the back. The temper of the work is fluid with liquid spirals of legs and body. I found the dancers engrossing and the movement unfolded as a seamless whole.

The program ended with a work danced and made by finishing year students with help from their company mentors. Play/Rewind is an enormously good-natured work with a lot of fun and energy thrown in. At its best it displays some really interesting movement sequences and, with strong developing technique from the dancers, it was well rehearsed and tidy. However, the overall effect was of being a student work. I suppose that cute touches, such as fluoro socks as part of the costuming, added to this impression, along with sections of choreography that were less tight than others.

This program really does show what time and experience brings to dancers' and choreographers' artistry and as such is a great testing ground for aspiring dancers. However the inclusion of a finishing year piece in the program, while providing invaluable experience for the young dancers and generating audience interest, subtly questions the intention of the company to be completely professional.

The close proximity of audience to dancers in this intimate space gave an immediate sense of the physicality of the dancers. MCB has learned to work well in a variety of spaces and continues to deliver excellent programs. One disappointment was that the service provided by the venue was almost unbelievably incompetent. The Metanoia Theatre, when hiring out the venue, needs to keep in mind that its client (MCB in this case) deserves a level of service that matches the professionalism of the work on show.

- SUSAN BENDALL