Expressions
Dance Company and Queensland Performing Arts Centre
Queanbeyan
Performing Arts Centre - October 9, 10, 2015.
Reviewed by
Bill Stephens
Originally created
by Natalie Weir for a gala performance with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra,
“Carmen Sweet” has been reworked by Weir into a perfect vehicle for Expressions
Dance Company. In terms of Weir’s
mission which she says in her program notes is to “expand our audience’s
appetite for beautiful, high quality contemporary works that tell a story, with
great music and stunning dance”, it ticks all the boxes.
Weir is
noted for her highly physical partner work and her confident, expansive
movement style. Her previous work shown at the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre,
“R&J”, had raised high expectations for this visit by Expressions Dance
Company and “Carmen Sweet” did not disappoint.
Working with
six exceptional dancers, to the music of Rodion Shchedrin’s intriguing adaptation
for strings and percussion of Bizet’s opera “Carmen”, originally composed for his ballerina wife,
Maya Plisetskaya, and which includes excerpts from Bizet’s “L’Arlesienne”, Weir
has crafted a masterful deconstruction of the familiar Carmen story which
cleverly compresses all the essential elements of the story while expanding the
psychological possibilities through the device of having the three female
dancers portray different aspects of Carmen’s
personality, often simultaneously.
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| Ilise May as Carmen |
The work
enthrals from the opening moments when we discover tall, elegant, Elise May, representing the wiser, darker side
of Carmen, seductively posed on a reproduction of Dali’s famous red-lipped Bocca
sofa. She wears a glamorous full length black lace dress, split to the waist to
expose her perfect long legs. May presented
an arresting image, perfectly prefacing the intrigue and danger which was to
follow.
Eventually
she is joined by Michelle Barnett, representing the sensual, fiery side of
Carmen, and Rebecca Hall, as the younger, carefree, flirty Carmen, both
costumed in flattering red and black costumes designed by Bill Haycock who also
designed the simple, dramatic setting. As they dance, together and separately, the
different aspects of Carmen’s personality become clear.
The entrance
of Don Jose (Jack Ziesing) provides a catalyst for turmoil as each of Carmen’s
personalities vie for his attention. The temperature rises considerably with
the arrival of the flamboyant matador, Escamillo (Benjamin Chapman) to whom
Carmen is immediately attracted. Enter the mysterious fortune teller, played
with considerable bravura by Daryl Brandwood, bare-chested and clad in a
beggar’s gauze skirt, which sets the stage for the tragic events which are about
to unfold.
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| The three Carmens dance with Don Jose |
“Carmen
Sweet” displays Weir’s impressive choreographic inventiveness to superb effect
in the series of luscious athletic solos, duets, trios and quartets which
thread through the work. Her confident phrasing constantly delights as she
takes advantage of the sly wit and fresh instrumental colours contained in the
score. Her use of dramatic, sensuous
lifts and falls, and her often surprising resolutions to choreographic combinations
constantly enchant the eye without confusing the storyline, as exampled in her arresting
quartet in which the three Carmen’s dance as one with Don Jose to the famous Habanera.
An interesting inclusion were six young
dancers, recruited from local ballet schools, each carrying a long-stemmed red
rose, who provide a showy entourage for the
entrance of the matador, Escamillo ( Benjamin Chapman). Weir’s choreography for these dancers was
challenging, but able to be executed perfectly, as it was on this occasion, but
complex enough to convince the audience that they were members of Expressions
Dance Company.
The final
image, a stunning tableau with Don Jose, horror-stricken at what he has just
done, standing over the bodies of the three Carmens, lifeless on the red couch,
provided a deeply satisfying conclusion to this memorable work.
The
Queanbeyan performances of “Carmen Sweet” come early in an extensive tour of
Victoria and New South Wales. Even if you have to walk over hot coals to get
there, when it comes to your town, don’t miss the opportunity to experience this
beautifully mounted, and superbly performed, dance work by one of the country’s
most accomplished dance makers.
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| Daryl Brandwood and Elise May |
This review also appears in Australian Arts Review