Artistic Director: Alice Lee Holland
Choreography: Pat Hayes Cavanagh – Alice Lee Holland –
Gabriel Sinclair – Isabella Stone
Lighting Design: Owen Davis – Sound Mastering: Kimmo
Vennonen
Costume Co-ordination: Natalie Wade – Rehearsal Assistant:
Jahna Lugnan
Belconnen Arts Centre, 16th & 17th
October 2026
Performance on 16th October reviewed by BILL
STEPHENS.
Each year, Quantum Leap Australia stages an edition of The
Chaos Project, an annual creative development process which introduces new
members to the Quantum Leap process while allowing experienced members to experiment
and explore their attraction to dance.
This year, 40 young dancers participated over an intensive 10-day
period, under the direction of four professional choreographers. The objects of the various segments were reflected
in the titles of the five choreographed sections - We Come Together to Dance
‘Til We Drop (Isabella Stone) – We Come Together to Grow (Pat Hayes Cavanagh)-
We Dance to Come Together (Gabriel Sinclair) – We Come together to Be Who We
Are (Alice Lee Holland) - We Come Together to Dance, to Belong (Isabella Stone).
Alice Lee Holland
also choreographed the opening and closing segments.
As all the segments are marked ‘in collaboration with the
cast” it appeared that all of the choreographers had followed the same process
of seeking suggestions from the young dancers, then shaping those suggestions
into an ensemble work, utilising whatever skills the participants could offer.
Given the huge variation in ages and experience of the
participants for each piece, it was inevitable that the resulting works would
bear a similarity to each other, particularly as the costuming for each piece, with the exception
of Gabriel Sinclair’s contribution, for which each participant wore similar black pants, white shirts and grey jackets, the dancers
in each of the other works wore mis-matched, ill-fitted ‘dress-ups' rather than
costumes.
So, while the young participants attacked their choreographed
tasks with enthusiasm, and the pieces were doubtless useful as introductions for
the participants to the Quantum Leap process, the lack of choreographic
variation and attention to presentation detail, meant that as public
performance, this year’s Chaos offerings were of limited interest other than to
parents and relatives.
Images by Olivia Wikner, O & J Wikner Photography.
