Experiencing the Sydney Dance Company’s triple bill RESOUND whets your appetite like the scent of spring lures a starling to feast on nectar.
A three-course carte du jour. First, maestro artistic director Raphael Bonachela’s masterwork Ocho tantalises your tastebuds. Eight dancers break out of entrapment and isolation into a banquet of delicious human connection. Next, Raphael Bonachela’s world premier SUMMER sates your hunger for grace, satisfies your craving for tenderness, quenches your thirst for light. Third, and just as you savour the afterglow following your degustation of delight, Stephanie Lake’s THE UNIVERSE IS HERE serves-up, in a golden chalice, the cognac.
After their sojourn earlier this year travelling throughout France, culminating in their triumphant two-week residency at the prestigious Theatre de Chaillot in Paris, and following their first season back home, the Sydney Dance Company’s current season is a delectable offering of diverse, vivacious vitality.
OCHO showcases eight unique individuals, each with their district bearing and idiosyncratic way of moving. We watch each one explore who they are alone, and who they become in relation to others. In time they connect intimately, never losing the integrity of each.
The dancers’ brave heartedness inspires each one’s self-revelation. Among them, Chloe Leong’s soulful moves arises, as if from the depths of the earth.
OCHO’s stunning set was created by David Fleischer; the music was composed by Nick Wales and features the haunting vocals of Rrawun Maymuru, a Yolgul songman; the lighting was designed by Damien Cooper.
SUMMER features a kaleidoscope of colour, warmth, and closeness, intoxicatingly shared by a trio of dancers. Kate Moore’s frenetic score captures the quintessential sounds of an Australian summer. Costumes were created by Romance Was Born and Ken Done. Damien Cooper produced the lighting design.
THE UNIVERSE IS HERE is the second world premier on the bill. Sheer magic. A golden offering of synergic precision, choreographic ingenuity, and verve.
Robin Fox composed the music, which included a live performance by harpist Emily Granger. Harriet Oxley created the costumes. Damien Cooper designed the lighting.
Raphael Bonachela, if the volume of the music was a little more modulated, and were it to hammer my ears a little less, I would have been able to focus on the dancers even more.
Sydney Dance Company’s RESOUND is playing the Roslyn Packer Theatre until the 3rd of November, 2022.