West Australian Ballet: Genesis

West Australian Ballet:  Genesis -
West Australian Ballet Centre, 4 April -

It’s been four years since the last season of West Australian Ballet’s (WAB) “Genesis”, a program that gives the company’s dancers the opportunity to choreograph.  This year’s version also included new works by two guest choreographers - Floeur Alder and Jo Funaki, a Japanese choreographer currently living in Perth.  In addition WAB’s education co-ordinator, Deborah Robertson, put on a choreographer’s hat for the season. 

The night kicked off with Afflatus (Latin for ‘inspiration’) by Matthew Lehmann.  There’s more than a touch of jazz to this quietly sensual piece.  A girl clad in a red dress is surrounded by four men, dressed in suits over bare chests.  The various pas de deux are a highlight of this work, in particular a moment that sees the four men pair off in a brief moment of synchronicity.

There were three pas de deux works in the program, each a winner.  The first of these came next – Hold the Fourth Part 1, by Daniel Roberts.  Featuring clean, dramatic lines, there’s a sense of building suspense about this contemporary piece.  Clad in black lycra with a touch of mesh, the dancers (Claire Hill with Roberts) looked like two stealthy spies as they flicked and spun through the grid-shaped shadows created by the lights.

Third on the menu was Skin, by Andre Santos.  Featuring three couples, this neoclassical work is very much about the female dancers’ legs, with numerous grande jetes and leg extensions. Meg Parry, Sarah Sutcliffe and Melissa Boniface hit their lines beautifully, whether in unison or canon. While Skin highlights air-borne movement, in the main, a favourite moment sees the three girls leaning back on their partners at the bottom of a deep plié on pointe, teetering precariously on the tips of their shoes.

The second duo was next – Fifth Season, a neoclassical pas de deux by Jayne Smeulders. Performed in front of an original artwork by local artist Francesco Villicich to Debussy’s "Reflets Dans L’Eau", this work puts me in the mind of the Diaghilev era.  The pas de deux was danced with fluidity by Smeulders and David Mack.  A lift which saw Smeulders slither down Mack echoes the liquid fall of the accompanying piano notes.

Like Santos’s Skin, Robertson’s Stale is created for three male and three female dancers, but instead of focusing on pairing the dancers, Robertson tends towards a mix of trios and ensemble work.  Often based on walking patterns, the movement, nonetheless, has an athleticism as the dancers swing, balance and weave between one another.  Claire Hill was a standout in this work, her rippling form eye-catching.

Floeur Alder’s Same but different was the last duo for the night.  Featuring Meg Parry and Benjamin Kirkman, this duo saw Parry wild and abandoned, her opening solo a cacophony of flinging and collapsing limbs.  Kirkman’s answering solo mimicked her movement, but his rendition spoke more of containment, of restrained emotion that might spill at any moment.  And so this beautifully matched pair continued.   The recklessness of this work is exhilarating; the interspersed moments of quiet eye-contact between the pair moving. 

And so to the final work for the evening, Tobila by Jo Funaki.  This neoclassical work features a lead couple, supported by an ensemble of three couples.  Whilst the work begins in a relatively sombre vein, the second section, for the lead couple, almost bursts with joy.  The music, by Jean-Philippe Goude and Joan Ambrosio Dalza, has a folky feel, and the movement takes its cue from that with plenty of light-hearted, jetes and Cossack-style kicks.  Dancing the lead female role, Yu Takayama was a sprite, tossed expertly through the air by her partner Matthew Lehmann.  Tobila was a joyful note on which to end the program.

In the intimate setting of WAB’s main studio, it was easy to see the small wobbles that cropped up here and there in “Genesis”.   The relatively informal, studio-showing-style setting, however, made any minor moments of uncertainty more forgivable.  In addition, the chance to see the dancers at such close proximity was a treat in itself.

- Nina Levy