Co3 Contemporary Dance’s “GATHERING.1”
Liberty Theatre
Wednesday 18 June 2025
Entering the Liberty Theatre for opening night of Co3 Contemporary Dance’s “GATHERING.1” mixed bill, we were transported into a world in which past and present collide.
In contrast to the rose-lit mid-century style foyer, the Liberty’s huge hall was filled with the pulsing sonic and visual energy of a 21st century warehouse party. Peeling paintwork added texture to Mark Haslam’s projections of works from Co3’s archives.
It was fitting for a program of four short works celebrating the state flagship company’s tenth anniversary by featuring local choreographers “past, present and future”. Also apt was the dance party vibe; between works dancers mingled with guests, the space carved with Haslam’s beams of haze-filled light, and bathed in beats from DJ Aslan and Mowgli, mixed live.
When the first performance – Co3 Artistic Director Raewyn Hill’s What Remains – began, however, it became apparent that a dance party doesn’t provide easy sight lines. As the evening unfolded I found myself creating my own choreography, weaving through the crowd to find a vantage point from which I could see the dancers, who performed the three latter works at floor level, amidst the audience.
Drawing together fragments from Hill’s previous works for the company, the movement themes of What Remains will be recognisable to anyone familiar with that repertoire. Set to Eden Mulholland’s looped, layered score of synthesized and acoustic sounds, What Remains reminds me most of Hill’s Archives of Humanity (2021). In textured black costumes that were used for all four works (taken from Co3’s wardrobe and reinvented by Luci Young), ten dancers rolled and revolved with gorgeous fluidity through the Baroque-style tableaus that form and dissolve in this work.
This nod to the past gave way to one of several kooky balloon-laced interludes featuring five guest dancers from LINK Dance Company, followed by The Rest is Noise, by emerging choreographer Logan Ringshaw.
Stuck behind the crowd, I only caught glimpses of this brief new quartet, which “explores the navigation of distraction, noise and stillness, separation, and oneness”. What I did see looked promising – snappy and sassy, with touches of ballroom voguing against the bopping electronic pop of Jamie xx. Dancers swished in and out of the crowd, blurring the boundaries between audience and performers.
Wiser, I snagged myself a spot at the front for Kimberley Parkin’s new work Tri-Hard, a trio that explores the relationship dynamics of that number, set to the airily ambient sounds of local composer David Stewart’s electronic interpretation of Jane’s “It’s a Fine Day”.
I’m a fan of Parkin’s darkly comic sensibilities and Tri-Hard doesn’t disappoint. Wide-eyed and often open-mouthed, dancers Macon Escobal Riley, Francesca Fenton and Luther Wilson articulated the work’s three-way embraces, counterbalances, surges in and out of the audience, and barn-dance inspired unison phrases with attack that teetered gloriously on the edge of disturbing.
Tipped off, I sat on the unused stage to watch Mitch Harvey’s 2021 work HUH, remounted by Zee Zunnur as Perth-born Harvey – a Co3 founding dancer – is currently dancing in Switzerland. Here I enjoyed full vision of eight performers as they channelled the driving, mesmerising beats of local composer Louis Frere-Harvey’s electronic score. Haslam’s orange-tinted beams of light were at times fog-filled so they silhouetted the dancers’ pulsating bodies.
HUH celebrates coming together to dance, and the cast beautifully captured the looseness of bodies being swept up by music and by each other – fists pumping, feet stomping – whilst remaining absolutely in sync. The desire to get up and join them – as we were invited to do at this work’s 2021 incarnation – felt almost irresistible, but the invitation wasn’t extended at the work’s conclusion, perhaps because the opening night formalities followed.
Nonetheless, the atmosphere on opening night of “Gathering.1” was electric. Many audience members revelled in the blending of party and performance, dancing alongside the performers during the interludes. While I found it frustrating when the dancers weren’t in view, for most punters it seemed to be a winning way to kick off Co3’s milestone birthday celebrations.
-Nina Levy