Expressions Dance Company: When Time Stops -
Playhouse, 6 September -
Expressions Dance Company’s (EDC) third signature work in a series presented in partnership with the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), and this year also as part of the Brisbane Festival, showed no diminishing of artistic director Natalie Weir’s skill as a choreographer capable of expressing the finest nuances of emotion through movement. The opening night audience for When Time Stops seemed spellbound from the work’s first moments to its very last.
When Time Stops is a poetic work that has as its central character a woman experiencing flashbacks of memory at the very last moments of her life and is set by Weir within the spiritual context of the legend of “the ferryman”, the transporter of souls across the river to the after-life. Memories, including the first kiss, a traumatic accident and a near-death experience, are woven exquisitely into an abstracted fabric of visual and aural beauty that is transfixing.
The work has had a long gestation and is as much the product of significant collaboration as it is about Weir’s vision as a choreographer. The specially commissioned score by Iain Grandage, played live by the musicians of the Camerata of St John’s, under the direction of Brendan Joyce, richly underscored the work’s expressive line, while Bill Haycock’s bold set design of angled walls falling into the space, arranged against a black night sky and illuminated by David Walters’ masterful lighting design, made for a superb looking work of blues, greys and soft bleached pinks.
However, it is the movement that weaves those elements into a cohesive whole, always with meaning as its impetus, sparsely fashioned, but expressed with lyricism and technical finesse.
Riannon McLean, as The Woman, is at the height of her powers of interpretation and execution. Her early duet of fluid and luscious lifts with guest artist Thomas Gundry Greenfield (a most compelling Ferryman of sculpted muscularity), showed great strength and control.
Daryl Brandwood’s solo of fluidly twisted contortions as he manipulated a small silver ball representing time, displayed both control and articulation. He is always a joy to watch.
A new addition to the EDC ensemble, Michelle Barnett, perfectly captured the joyous innocence of young love in “First Kiss”, a duet with Benjamin Chapman, another newcomer who promises much with his rapacious use of space. Jack Ziesing in the solo “Repercussions” also showed great command of the stage in an impeccable performance.
“Cardiac” was a highlight, due mainly to the expressive powers of Elise May. In this poignant duet, the image of Gundy Greenfield relentlessly 'administering' CPR, contrasted with May slipping out and back under his hands as she 'lingered' between life and death.
The twelve musicians of the Camerata of St John’s playing cello, violin, viola and double bass weaved another shimmering thread through the fabric of When Time Stops as, like troubadours they moved on and off stage in different numbers and formations, integral to the expressive and visual impact of the work.
In When Time Stops EDC has clearly shown how a larger ensemble of dancers and live instead of recorded music directly influences the final artistic product. Exponentially you get more artistic bang for your dollar! This home-grown product is a must-see of the Brisbane Festival.
– DENISE RICHARDSON