'Variant'
Geoff Gibbs Theatre
Friday May 25
Through Edith Cowan University and WAAPA, Nanette Hassall and Chrissie Parrott created Link in 2002 as the performance component of a post-graduate year for contemporary dancers.
A double bill, “Variant” is Link Dance Company’s first season of 2012. Current director Michael Whaites chose short, engaging works of great contrast, both of which effectively reveal the versatility and abilities of the group.
The opening piece, Slack, was originally choreographed as a solo in 2006 for Australian Dance Theatre by Larissa McGowan, which she performed. She later developed it into a longer work to a Jethro Woodward score. McGowan came to Perth to remount Slack on the Link dancers and working with this inventive young Australian choreographer would have been a valuable experience for them.
On a lit, raised platform a female (Kasey Lack) is constrained by her metres-long braided plait attached to the ceiling. Lack was impressive as she moved robotically and in unison with a second female figure as a shadow.
Elsewhere, bodies lie, are carried and thrown, or fall on the stage. They begin robotic writhing, the group apparently no freer than the female. As the movements become more extreme and confronting, the female, who has extricated herself, joins them. On the darkened floor a couple dragging a rope battle.
The dancers showed good physicality and control, and they work hard to fully convey the choreographic intent and complicated underlying forces at play.
Matthew Tupper was prominent, with great elevation and power, and a lithe Kye Maurer was most effective as the group tried to exclude him. A trio tackled their demanding choreography of struggle very well apart from a few moments of uncertainty and some loss of smooth transitions.
Eventually the female returns to the platform trying to return to the security of limitation. The program notes were fairly ambiguous but seemed to suggest escape from fear and restraint. The work seems to vindicate this as it ends with the female choosing to stride alone off stage with an apparent sense of freedom.
After interval, internationally acclaimed choreographer Twyla Tharp’s elegiac work Sweet Fields provided a vast divergence in style. Sweet Fields was co-commissioned in 1996 by the University of California and John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts. Charlie Hodges, the visiting répétiteur from Tharp, taught the piece to the Link dancers.
Sweet Fields is set to Shaker songs and sacred choral music, which was beautifully sung a cappella by members of the Eneksis Vocal Ensemble directed by Micheal McCarthy. The choir is dressed in black and grouped on the stage apron on either side of the proscenium. With dancers clad in white, and against an azure blue cyclorama, the mood is immediately established for the charming work that follows.
The 10 Link dancers, with the addition of two undergraduate guests from WAAPA, managed the precision, the broad flowing quality, the reverential style and the unpretentiousness of this work very well in steps and patterns that are deceptively simple.
Tony Currie was outstanding, with sweeping, soft movements, subtle épaulement and well-articulated footwork. Kasey Lack, Emma Marren, Sinead Harte and Kye Maurer also excelled.
Tharp’s grandparents were Quakers (who share some similarities with the Shakers) and her connection and integrity to the ritualistic world she creates on stage is evident. All of the dancers captured the inherent spirituality of Sweet Fields.
Tharp herself said: "Sweet Fields is about people who believe that they can have a certain degree of control over life. Obviously, they can't stop the fact that they're going to die, but they can mould and shape the way they lead their lives." This idea of taking control is also suggested in Slack and the two works of "Variant" explore a similar theme in very different ways.
- MARGARET MERCER