Two Blood
Australian Dance Theatre
Carriageworks August 14
Review by Geoffrey Sykes
It was good to see a program from Australian Dance Theatre, with their longstanding commitment not only to a high standard of contemporary dance, but to narrative framing of their artistry. If contemporary dance can sometimes be seen as overly abstract, that is not a charge that can be leveled against the aspiration of ADT to make “dance theatre”, even “dance drama”.
It is appropriate therefore that this latest program, Two Blood, adopts a range of theatrical and narrative techniques. Storytelling, media imagery (via two vertical LED mobile screens) and song enhanced a grounded textural dance style that crowded the stage with materials including ash. Ensemble work was vigorous and intense, and often co-joined the narrative arc that centred on an historical cross cultural relationship, between Chinese and aboriginal lovers, specifically a Cantonese man (Zachary Lopez) and a Tagalaka woman (Carly Sheppard). The two leads did a poignant and commendable portrayal of this couple, that encoded divergent histories of two cultures and enabled a springboard of ideas that reach out to meditation on the land and reconciliation. Carly helped anchor the historical story from Tagalaka country in Northern Queensland, which was authenticated by choreographer Jasmin Sheppard’s own cultural heritage.
Jasmin steered a busy, sustained spectrum of dance well, requiring a lot from her dancers who in return delivered high quality work. All dancers were up to speed, in a muscular muscular and visceral style. Zoe Wozniak displayed a strong female role, her hands embracing the worlds depicted. Yilin Kong was dextrous, especially in the dedicated Asian segment, displaying a talent for multiform expression, weaving words and movement with great finesse. Joshua Doctor doubled as a singer, with a moving segment in language. The team was of mixed heritage, but the aboriginal component was strengthened by Daniel Riley as co-director, and James Howard as co composer of a very satisfying, robust and varied score. The associated program notes display a keen cultural sensitivity of all involved. It’s possible the ensemble was too vigorous, especially toward the end. After all, at its core there is a story of two lovers – the fragility of this relationship needs to be maintained.
The staging employed two mobile LED screens. It is good to see screens in a smaller show – and liberating to see screen movement employed. The Singapore video montage (Elias Nohra) was keenly edited, and moved along with Yilin. The outback imagery was colourful, but could have been more dynamic.
It was great to see the two musicians (James Howard and Andy Qilong Chia) playing on screen on occasion – definitely adding to theatrical effect. A nice touch indeed to the musicality of the show overall. The lighting (Matthew Adey) had a keen mix of source and types of light, and keenly integrated into the program
Carly’s story telling could have been integrated into her own dance and those of the team – however it can be a challenge to ask dancers to act. With delicate words in the script, enunciation is important. Multiform work can be good in theory but there can be challenges in implementation.
Generally I felt the narrative could have been clearer. This was an impression among the audience later. The show graphically represented early settlement massacres. Was this depicting actual Tagalaka events? Massacres have been controversial and deservedly absorbed a lot of attention, and are material for drama, but deaths of first contact population were caused by many factors – starvation and disease being just two. The killing states were clear, but other states less so. Perhaps narrative text could be used, at least for setting scenes if not short synoptic summaries. This technique would not be discordant with the open texture of the show. The show soundly seeks a vision of reconciliation in Australia, presumably in society generally not just two oppressed groups in thepast. It would be great indeed important to hear more words, storytelling and focused dance spelling out that vision.
In itself this is a deserving beautiful show of high quality.
