So peeps, we are almost at the point of putting a lid on the year that was 2024 and we are definitely not leaving with a whimper. The catch for the last month has certainly been all things educational. Maybe educational is not the right word to describe the dance expression on offer borne from mentored relationships. From my role as director of NAISDA Dance College’s end of year production, to my viewing of this year’s Dance Clan season presented by Bangarra Dance Theatre and our (FORM Dance Projects) very own season presentation of INTERSECTIONS: Street Dance X Theatre featuring the best and brightest new bodies on the hip hop scene, November has been a month dedicated to relationships of reciprocity. You’ll see what I mean as this blog unfolds.
Dance Clan – Bangarra Dance Theatre
There were three works on the Dance Clan bill by current Bangarra dancers. First up was Wiradjuri, Darkinjung man Kallum Goolagong whose work was titled Metamorphosis and who was mentored by Indian independent choreographer Raghav Handa throughout the development period. (Fun fact, did you know that much of Raghav’s formative training was in contemporary Australian Indigenous dance and that he performed in Raymond Blaco’s piece Tent Embassy with the Aboriginal/Islander Dance Theatre, Australia’s first Indigenous Australian dance company!)
The mentor’s role is a difficult one to navigate in this respect in that as a mentor you guide your charge to be the best they can, while simultaneously holding back on influencing or interjecting your own personal artistic proclivities. Handa did a good job in this respect in that Goolagong employed a movement vocabulary which both included and exceeded the parameters of Bangarra’s otherwise indomitable aesthetic.
Annaliese McCarthy’s set design was utilised well and made to Goolagong’s brief which included influences by Japanese Zen Buddhist philosophical practices. The smooth spare curves of McCarthy’s set pieces reminded me of my time as a student at Martha Graham, where famed sculptor Isamu Noguchi’s partially constructed set pieces for Graham’s Embattled Garden were sometimes propped in the corner of the studio.
The influence of Zen Buddhist meditation practices was extended to composer James Howard’s musical accompaniment which opened to the meditative sound of a chorus of long notes, sung with a breathy quality, which imbued the effect of a drone.
Tongan and Gamilaroi dancer Daniel Mateo created a short film titled Brown Boys for his Dance Clan choreographic debut in collaboration with digital media artist and choreographer Cass Mortimer Eipper. This work was driven by a poem written by Daniel with the same title. The text was at once autobiographical yet claiming and encapsulating a voice for all ‘brown boys’ speaking eloquently of the subtle cultural nuances associated with otherness in relation to the Occidental/ Western setting in which he was raised.
Set designer Elizabeth Gadsby’s pieces were organic, the overarching piece a free standing woven structure which was peeled back by Mateo to reveal a skeleton, which was used as a metaphor for Mateo’s exposition of self.
Working with Liam Brennan as director of photography the setting became timeless. The woven house appeared to float in a sea of white as no discernible landmark existed.
The third piece on the Dance Clan bill was Yawaru choreographer Lillian Banks work aptly titled Yawaru Baru (Yawaru Country), working with Tagalaka choreographer and former Bangarra dancer Jasmin Sheppard, acting as mentor. A stand out moment in her choreography occurred when two female dancers performed a duet with their heads concealed like shrouds in a swathe of brown cloth. This movement sequence, combined with the set design, which consisted of three triangular platforms or plinths when stood on end, combined with the low hanging translucent fabric which was suspended from the ceiling, which was evocative of the humid heat which hangs heavy in the air. This transported me back to the first time I visited Broome’s famed Japanese cemetery and the lesser known but ever more intriguing community cemetery directly behind it. For in the community cemetery, the plots are varied with some headed by simple wooden crosses while others were very ornate. One such embellished plot was outlined in upended bottles pushed deep into the ground and another with chairs to sit with the departed. I was so taken with the second cemetery I made a point to try and visit each time I returned. I informed Lillian of my interpretation afterwards and she was surprised as this was not in any way intentional, although conceded that she could see how I arrived at that particular conclusion.
INTERSECTIONS: Street Dance X Theatre – FORM Dance Projects
The night after experiencing Dance Clan I hotfooted it to Parramatta Riverside Theatre to see FORM Dance Projects latest presentation of INTERSECTIONS: Street Dance X Theatre. This was a work of two halves.
The first group Oh Sheila consisted of two performers/choreographers Beverley Li and Tiffany Nung and one choreographer Ashley Goh. Their work Kinetic Illusions was crafted with Nick Power as mentor/ outside eye. Power is renowned for his crossover from b-boy performer to successful choreographer infiltrating the contemporary dance realm and a perfect fit to guide this trio.
Kinetic Illusions was well crafted developing from a simple phrase duplicated by the two bodies, one standing and one seated, as we entered the theatre. The stage was adorned with a triangle of white tape which dominated the performance’s real estate and two large roving mirrors which duplicated and triplicated the dancers’ presence. The mirror was used to such great effect that at one point it appeared as if one dancer was partnering with one of her reflections while yet another reflection was witnessing the action of the other two.
From the deftly enacted mirror play the dancers moved to the triangle where an elaborate game of cat and mouse unfolded and a myriad of imagined relationships between the two unfurled. Then the work ended as it had begun (of sort) winding down with the two performing simple moves together, however this time acknowledging each other in comradery, as if they’d just completed a great adventure, of which they had.
Kinetic Illusions was followed by a group consisting of Alice Tauv, Daniel Kim and Laura Bao- Tran Huynh under the overarching direction of Amelia Duong with the moniker Destructive Steps Dance Association. Together they presented as a quartet under the banner INTERFLOW. Unlike the first piece, INTERFLOW was meant to be a showcase of hip hop styles with vignettes emerging from the overall performance as opposed to one overarching theme holding the piece together. In this case the work held a little more tightly to hip hop’s street origins.
Again, as will Kinetic Illusions, interaction with the set is what propelled the dance in INTERFLOW forward. Consisting of four square tables for one and four chairs it located the dancers in a type of bureaucratic situation which was enhanced by the black suited costumes each performer adorned. Except for one dancer the gender assignment performed was predominantly male even though the performers were inversely, except for one, predominantly female. This costuming aspect also imbued the dance with a curiously non binary gender feel. However, what they did have in spades was swagger.
I could discuss and highlight the movement specifics here but I want to talk about a generality. I have found that the choreographic ability of emerging street dancers very often surpasses those of their institutionally trained counterparts. Why? After teaching in so many places of formal dance training I have found that because many of the dancers have been taught specific rules associated with overarching dance techniques and the prescribed movement pathways associated with their delivery, that when they are given the freedom to make their own compositions they subconsciously remain loyal to those dance doctrines. Whereas their street dancing counterparts, who aren’t governed by rules, instead by their physical limitations, very often find many more options with which to conduct choreographic play. Ah, but there it is, dance in this hip hop context is learned through choreographic exploration rather than the predominant dogmatic repetition through mimicry of the formal dance training venues.
And this is why I was so impressed by the two crews on FORM’s INTERSECTIONS bill, that they had the temerity and dexterity to cross over into the contemporary realm with such promise and aplomb.
Now because this is the final blog of the year I thought I would leave you with more than you bargained for. If this were a two parter, then this would mark the second part.
Out Of the Studio – DirtyFeet
Since I am addressing mentee/mentor/ outside eye and collaborative relationships of reciprocity I want to go back in time and acknowledge DirtyFeet’s Out Of the Studio triple bill celebrating its ten year anniversary at Sydney Dance Company earlier this year.
I was initially meant to mentor Amy Flannery, a fellow Wiradjuri countrywoman, who has many feathers to her cap, or bow, or is that arrow(?) as an emerging composer as well as choreographer. I am glad that Amy was in good hands with the combo Ella Havelka and Rhiannon Newton in the making of Sap(ped).
Usually I prefer not to read the program notes regarding a work but in the case of Sap(ped) I feel it was imperative to the process of appreciating the choreography. In fact, usually I deem a work of inferior quality if I have to read the program notes in preparation to experiencing the performance. Usually, but not this time, for Sap(ped) unfolded like a moving meditation whereby I found myself momentarily transporting myself back to the arboreal environs that hold a fond place in my memory, from the hikes I have taken around Mount Keira (as part of the great dividing range) throughout my childhood growing up in the Illawarra region and surprisingly to the sparse Sherwood forest of Nottingham.
Both dancers Aroha Pehi and Maddison Fraser acquitted themselves well. I was mesmerised by Maddison’s liquid spinal isolations and Pehi’s grounded quality anchoring the work and which acted in strong compliment to Maddison’s lithe dexterity.
Next on this triple bill was Vishnu Arunasalam with his work MUGAVARI. I know Vishnu through PACT Centre for Emerging Arts where I led workshops in dance theatre performance. I know Vishnu to be a very strong Indian classical dancer trained in the Bharatanatyam technique. During our time together at PACT as part of their fortnight long resident initiatives, I discovered that Arunasalam is also a palliative care nurse.
I was overjoyed to see and hear how, under the guidance of Martin del Amo, who is famed for his work integrating body weather practices with text based narratives (also the 2024 recipient of Creating Australia’s Dance Award!) Arunasalam was able to share insight into his life as a performer in the spotlight, and as carer, a career that is so often played out in the shadows, with wit and humour in equal measure. I appreciated his ability to impart short anecdotes about his day while simultaneously maintaining longer narratives about his life’s trajectory, all woven together with the delicate gestures, strong postures and rigorous rhythms of his traditional dance. It takes real skill to make so many elements appear almost pedestrian in a seemingly casual presentation. Not!
Last on the bill from DirtyFeet’s 2024 Out Of The Studio season was choreographer Emma Riches’ CUE LAB created with performer collaborators Mitchell Christie, Josh Freedman, Emma Harrison and Jacinta Mullen. The dancers entered the stagespace, each armed with a pair of sneakers, the conceit, to perform the everyday action of simply putting them on.
And so the dance began.
I distinctly remember how slow I felt this work took to get going. I remember a fleeting feeling of impatience wondering where it was all going. What would it eventually lead to, all these sparse meetings and repetitions? Then the payoff in incremental physical rigour hit me before I registered it coming. I began to enjoy the interplay so much, the sophisticated game of tag, that I didn’t want it to end.
Again here each dancer acquitted themselves well. I realise the term ‘well aquitted’ is a shitty way to describe competence. I realise competence is also a shitty way to describe decent performance. There I go again with decent! Also shitty.
But I digress: a standout in this overall piece was Mitchell Christie. He was sharp and charismatic. In this performance Christie transformed into a personality onstage that appeared twice the size of his actual svelte frame. A performer to watch amongst performers to watch.
Meditating on these works in hindsight I am reminded that a good dance work doesn’t have to champion a specific cause, nor does it have to be loud and flashy to be bloody good. Most importantly a good bloody work does bloody well with the right guidance. A good bloody work is oft times the result of an emergence from the good bloody community that helps it stand up and out.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
See you on the other side.
Vicki Van Hout
FORM Dance Projects
Blogger in Residence
https://www.noguchi.org/isamu-noguchi/biography/biography/
https://www.broome.wa.gov.au/Community/Community-Services/Cemetery