Victorian College of the Arts Secondary College: Carmen and Jose -
Merlyn Theatre, Malthouse, 11 September -
Victorian College of the Arts Secondary College’s (VCASS) performance season 2014 was ambitious, diverse and challenging. A program of four substantial works plus a one-act ballet stood in place of the more episodic program shown last year. It is tempting to correlate this change with an expansion in outlook for VCASS dance. Head of Dance, Tim Storey, has announced an increase in places for dance students in 2015 as well as negotiations to the rights for Balanchine's Serenade to be shown beside a Gary Stewart work.
The four works that made up the first half of the bill seemed to be designed not only to display diversity in style and mood but to allow for maximum participation and performance experience.
The year nines tackled Ascension, choreographed by Lambros Lambrou for VCASS dancers in 2000. Program notes indicate that this has been previously danced by older students. This largely explains the elements that were not quite 'there' in this rendering. Set to Movements 2 and 4 of Beethoven's 7th Symphony, the work demands a combination of pure classical line with an ability to skew it into contemporary articulations. The young dancers worked well with the choreographic material and displayed beautiful technique. The lack was felt in the overall coherence of the dancing - a slight awkwardness in transitions from movement to movement which sometimes appeared to be a series of poses rather than a flowing whole.
Jonathan Taylor's dramatic Opus 47, to Elgar’s composition of the same name, was a good contrast to the pale elegance of the Lambrou. Rhythmically charged and feisty, it displayed the year ten's assured technique and a development in stage presence from the previous group. The leading couples were well matched and partnering was secure and elegant. Some lovely explosive jumps were demonstrated by one of the leading girls as well as a joyful demeanour.
Where the Shallows End, by Sela Kiek-Callan and Steven McTaggart in collaboration with the dancers, offers a truly contemporary and earthy reflection on the relationship between hunter and hunted. It is strong and dramatic, tribal in feeling and fast moving. Divided into four movements, it is a busy and exciting work and showed the senior students' facility with this type of movement vocabulary, choreographic structure and way of developing work. Strong and committed dancing was evident from the group.
Jenny Purcell's Walk But Once pays homage to choreographer Christopher Bruce and uses a staggeringly large cast of dancers. Costumed simply, an angular movement language is employed. Flexed feet and a stylised folkloric tone to the movement reminds of naive paintings of villagers. The sheer physical busy-ness of this work is overwhelming. There is a sense that somewhere, there is a giant magnet, drawing ever increasing numbers of dancers into the maelstrom.
Carmen and Jose was positioned at the centre of this program. Tim Harbour's 2011 schoolyard rendering of the Carmen story borrows the characters, names and loose narrative structure of the opera to produce something into which the year 11-12s can sink their teeth. Harbour has created choreographic challenge, opportunities for characterisation, humour, drama and the showcasing of solo talents. The ballet was danced, acted and performed well and students seemed to delight in the technical and performative opportunities, but there were some issues in the ballet. Overlaying a school story onto the Carmen narrative felt mawkish. The character of Carmen was danced with spiky attack by Phillippa Keltie, all self-conscious adolescent rebelliousness rather than sensuality, which was partly dictated by the choreography. In contrast, choreography for Jose was lyrical and Jordan Jacobs was eloquent and fluid. But overall, much of the characterisation was parodic caricature. Narrative decisions seemed a bit glib or strange - Jose and Micaela were brother and sister in this version, Matadors were schoolboys, prison became detention. It felt trivialising.
There were ample opportunities for students in this years' VCASS season. The biggest barrier to enjoyment was a consistent overcrowding of the stage. There seemed to be an imperative to have all the dancers onstage all the time, so that it was not always easy to appreciate individuality of dancers or choreography.
- SUSAN BENDALL