• From L: Imogen Tapara, Olivia Kingston, Vanessa Ghazal, Maddie Tratt, Rowan Rossi & Raegan Williams. Photo: Seshanka Samarajiwa.
    From L: Imogen Tapara, Olivia Kingston, Vanessa Ghazal, Maddie Tratt, Rowan Rossi & Raegan Williams. Photo: Seshanka Samarajiwa.
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Limitless Dance Company: Both Sides
Playhouse Theatre, NIDA, 20 May 2016

Limitless Dance Company is a new and independent contemporary dance company led by founder/director Mitchell Turnbull. For this debut performance he has choreographed a new work for twelve dancers called Both Sides, and it is quite impressive both in the underlying concept, and in the way that concept was realised through dance, music and design.

Essentially, Both Sides is about the power play in relationships, and uses the imagery of a chess game to accentuate the competitive aspect. This is reflected in Mitchell Turnbull’s costume design, with half the dancers dressed in white, and the other half in black. However the garments themselves are sufficiently non-specific and varied as to allow the viewer to move past the chess analogy and see the dancers as people rather than chess pieces. With varying combinations of unitards, leotards, shorts and skirts for the main ensemble, four soloist dancers are identifiable by their longer skirts and trousers.

These four dancers (Imogen Tapara, Rowan Rossi, Jennifer Horvath and Chris Mifsud) all gave strong performances, but as the Black Couple, Imogen Tapara and Rowan Rossi had more dramatic choreography to work with and stood out a bit more as a result. Turnbull’s athletic choreography places significant demands on the dancers and the cast met his challenge with movement that didn’t hold back. Even in the more lyrical sections there was still a range of dynamic force at play, and in terms of technique, the dancers’ were consistent in the smooth ease of their transitions to and away from the floor.

Both Sides is accompanied by composer Paul Tinsley’s work. It has a slightly amorphous quality, shimmering and dream-like, that is punctuated by natural sounds such as water movement, metallic friction and the creaking, cracking sounds of industrial materials like wood. The lighting design is really effective and varied, utilising a ‘chequerboard’ effect of alternately lit squares and big floodlights from the wings. (Unfortunately I am unsure who to credit for this as there was no mention of lighting design in the program.)

As Limitless Dance Company is just emerging it is unsurprising that only a handful of performances were scheduled at NIDA’s Playhouse Theatre, however Both Sides is an ambitious work that would benefit from a longer run in a bigger theatre. It is sadly ironic that their world premiere comes just one week after the ‘Black Friday’ funding cuts to selected small to medium arts organisations that left the arts sector reeling. Surely any lover of dance would support Limitless Dance Company’s aim: the reason for its creation as stated in the program, “to give more paid performance opportunities to contemporary dancers in Australia.”

- GERALDINE HIGGINSON

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