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| The finale to "Encircling Voyage" choreographed by MA Bo PhotoL WANG Xiao-Jing |
Choreographed
by Stephanie Lake and MA Bo for Expressions Dance Company and
BeijingDance/LDTX
The Q,
Queanbeyan 7th & 8th November, 2019.
Reviewed by
Bill Stephens
“Matrix” is the result of a collaboration by
Queensland based Expressions Dance Company with one of China’s leading
contemporary dance companies, BeijingDance/LDTX.
Earlier this
year the six ensemble members of Expressions Dance Company travelled to China
to join the fourteen dancers of BeijingDance/LDTX in five-weeks of creative
development to create two works, “Auto Cannibal” by Australian choreographer,
Stephanie Lake and “Encircling Voyage” by Chinese choreographer MA Bo.
Under the
umbrella title of “Matrix” (a cultural, social or political environment in
which something develops) the two works were premiered in Beijing and Tianjin
before travelling to Australia for performances in Brisbane, Cairns and
Queanbeyan, prior to performances in the Hong Kong Dance Festival.
Both works
involved all twenty accomplished dancers and the differences in approach by the
two choreographers in employing the skills of those dancers made for a riveting
evening.
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| A moment from "Auto Cannibal" choreographed by Stephanie Lake. Photo: YIN Peng |
For her work
“Auto Cannibal”, Stephanie Lake, draws on the idea of the modern world’s
obsession with newness and consumption to create an ode to re-using,
re-purposing and re-invigorating. She draws on her own previous choreographic
ideas to create a kaleidoscopic work using only the dancer’s bodies to create a
continuously intriguing sequence of mesmerising movement.
The work
commences with a single dancer in a spotlight responding to the incessant
clicking of Robin Fox’s soundtrack. One by one other dancers join her until the
stage is filled with face painted dancers, all wearing similar black shorts and
white tops, but moving in perfect unison.
They ebb and
flow in movement suggesting waves crashing on a shore, or form an endless
moving line behind a couple performing
an intricate courting dance. A girl performs a bird-like solo. Males
challenge each other and form a group to threaten a lone female. Along with
rhythm changes, there are hints of various scenarios, but nothing is confirmed,
and finally, having pleasured the eye and challenged the intellect, the work
climaxes in a shower of snowflakes.
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| The finale to "Auto Cannibal" choreographed by Stephane Lake Photo: YIN Peng |
A lush moody
score by David Darling, arresting ash-covered costumes designed by WANG Yan,
six mirror-surfaced stools and stunning lighting design by Joy CHEN are tools
MA Bo incorporates into her arresting work, “Encircling Voyage”, to muse on the
circle of life.
Exercising a
rich choreographic palette she has her dancers continuously re-arrange the
stools to create sculptural groupings. Three men carry a young woman high above
their heads then swoop her around the stage. Virtuosic solos, by dancers
unnamed in the printed program, sensuous duets and ingenious tableaus abound.
Deep
cultural meanings are suggested. Dancers write messages in the air, a crouched
figure crosses the stage mysteriously, the cries of a baby are heard, and a
young woman is stripped of her costume to form a crucifix image on the mirrored
stools, then covered with ash for a shattering climax.
Visually
arresting, constantly intriguing, with stunning choreography superbly performed
by twenty remarkable dancers, “Matrix” is not only a feast of innovative and
memorable dance theatre but also a remarkable example of the value of cultural
exchange.
