Resonance. James Batchelor and
Collaborators.
Lead artist, choreographer and
producer James Batchelor. Dramaturg, producer Bek Berger. Composer Morgan Hickinbotham. Lighting
designer Katie Sfetkidis. Lighting associate Lara Gabor. Costume designer Theo
Clinkard. Costume maker Alice Orfona Coles. Youth Dance Partner QL2 Dance.
The Courtyard Studio.Canberra
Theatre Centre. October 9-10 2025. Bookings: 62752700.
www.canberratheatrecentre.org.au
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
James Batchelor
The audience enters a large open
space. The Courtyard Studio of the Canberra Theatre Centre has been stripped
bare. A single row of chairs lines the walls of the space. Seated on the floor
a group of wdancers wait. It is as
though we have entered a studio rehearsal room, preparing to witness the birth
of a new work. In the centre of the room a dancer stands with a microphone in
her hand. She begins to move, tracing patterns across the floor and describing
the video angles as the camera tracks her measured movements through space. It
is not easy to understand her entire narration but I imagine that she is
describing what I later discover is the video of Life in Movement about choreographer Tanja Liedtke.
The microphone passes to choreographer and lead dancer James Batchelor. Seated on the floor his voice is clear as he describes the influence and inspiration that Tanja Liedke had on his work and the dancers who worked with her on her projects 12th Floor and Construct. IT is the story of a life cut tragically short when she was killed while jogging along the road in Sydney in the dark hours of the morning and was struck by a passing garbage truck. There is spiritual sobriety in Batchelor’s honouring of Liedtke’s legacy. Even while seated his voice echoes with the admiration for a dancer he never met, but whose influence has informed his creative expression. Liedtke shines as the Muse of Time’s transgression and transformation.
Finally the microphone passes to
Theo who reads a letter he received from Liedtke shortly before her death. It
is heartbreaking, oblivious to the cruel twist of fate before she was due to
assume artistic directorship of the Sydney Dance Company from founding director
Graeme Murphy. It is a letter full of joy and optimism and hopeful vision. It
is a vision that Batchelor and the dancers who worked with Liedtke create as a
living archive, joined by those whom Batchelor has selected from local and
national dancers. As the dancers put on a transparent top it appears as though
their meditative ritual has assumed the spirit of their Muse. . Through space
they weave a pattern of ethereal dance akin to the images on a Grecian frieze
or the fluid grace of figures in a Matisse picture. Morgan Hickinbotham’s
composition punctuates gesture and impulse with a percussive beat that
gradually builds in momentum in a performance that builds in intensity before
reverting to stillness before transforming into a collaboration of Liedtke’s
inventiveness and Batchelor’s pensive expressiveness. Gesture in motion,
expression through space and time create a fusion of style that shares the cornucopia
of human emotion. A dancer describes being overwhelmed by Liedtke’s prepossession
with detail in gesture, in precise action and in transforming the inanimate
into a living embodiment. Batchelor weaves Liedtke’s dance background in
physical theatre and dramatic narrative through movement with his own
immediately expressive use of the body as a living archive. Resonance is a
dance work of shifting moments of solo work, such as Anton’s leaping embrace of
the space or working in pairs or groups in relating to the human need for
community and support, friendship and trust.
Batchelor’s work resonates with a
shared humanity. It transports us to flashing images of experience. There is
humour in moments of whimsy and frivolity. There is contemplation in moments of
reflection and empathy. There is collaborative power in the dedication to
Liedtke’s legacy and sadness at the dreams unfulfilled and visions unrealized.
And yet, there is hope and there is jubilation in the belief that Liedtke s
brief oeuvre will have a lasting influence across the generations and inspire
future artists to incorporate her inspiration in the shared passion for
contemporary dance. It is what Batchelor has achieved with Resonance to stunning effect.
Hickinbotham’s score reaches a
fever pitch as dancers, once more donned in the transparent tops whirl in spirals
of sheer jubilation. Bacchanalian in its devotion, Batchelor and collaborators
pay a final homage to a Muse who inspired their art. Resonance ultimately resounds with optimism. Liedtke’s spirit is
her gift to contemporary dance and James Batchelor and his collaboraators are
the shining custodians of her legacy.
