Elizabeth Cameron
Dalman and Mirramu Dance Company
Q Theatre, Queanbeyan
15 July 2015
Review by Len Power
L – the Roman Numeral for ‘50’ – is an appropriate title for
this show which celebrates Elizabeth Cameron Dalman’s 50 years of
professional contemporary dance in Australia.
Born in Adelaide, Elizabeth Cameron Dalman studied and danced
in Europe, London and the USA. She
founded the Australian Dance Theatre in 1965 and was its artistic director for
10 years. She was awarded a Medal Of The
Order Of Australia (an OAM) in 1995 for her contribution to contemporary dance
in Australia and is currently Director of the Mirramu Creative Arts Centre at
Lake George. And at age 81, she is still
dancing!
‘L’ is a program that links various works of the past 50
years associated with Elizabeth Cameron Dalman with new works by her and her
current company. The collection gives a
sense of time passing and looking back at life’s experiences and forward,
courageously, to the end of life. It’s
wistful and nostalgic with good accompanying choices of music and flashes of humour here and there.
The company of seven dancers performs the program very
well. Highlights were ‘Sapling’, a dance
about a young tree bursting with life, choreographed and performed beautifully by
Vivienne Rogis; ‘Memories’, an excerpt from ‘Homage To Botticelli’, from a 1969
Australian Dance Theatre program, by Elizabeth Cameron Dalman; the haunting ‘Excerpt
from 1972’s Limousine for Janis’, choreographed by Eleo Pomare to music by
Janis Joplin and Yoko Ono and ‘Tree Spirit’, an adaptation of choreography of
Albert David, performed by Elizabeth Cameron Dalman and Hans David Ahwang. This young dancer gave an especially magnetic
performance in this sequence.
 |
| The Company - from left: Hans David Ahwang, Amanda Tutalo, Vivienne Rogis, Mark Lavery, Miranda Wheen, Janine Proost, Elizabeth Cameron Dalman OAM (Photograph by Barbie Robinson) |
Lighting by Rodney Bates was excellent as were the costumes
by Sharon Rasker.
This was a memorable evening of dance by an accomplished
company. Elizabeth Cameron Dalman is, without
a doubt, a living legend.
Len Power’s reviews
are also broadcast in the ‘Artcetera’ program on Artsound FM 92.7 on Saturdays
from 9am.