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| "Sympathetic Monsters " |
Choreographed
by Ruth Osborne, Steve Gow, Jack Ziesing, Alison Plevey, Olivia Fyfe and Ryan
Stone for QL2 Dance.
Canberra
College Theatre, Woden, 15th October, 2020.
Reviewed by
Bill Stephens.
If there is
an upside to the Covid-19 virus, it is the challenge it has provided to
theatre-makers to come up with innovative new ways of producing theatre works.
Like every other performing arts company, QL2 was forced to abandon its planned
programs for 2020, including an overseas tour, and its mainstage season in the
Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse, which involved a major commission from
choreographer, Jack Ziesing, on which work had already begun. .
Not to be
deterred however, QL2 Dance decided to seek out a new performance space, experiment with different ways of rehearsing,
and offer two major performance projects,
Jack Ziesing’s commissioned work and the annual end-of-year “Chaos”
program, as a double- bill entitled “Leap into Chaos”.
QL2 Dance’s
annual “Chaos” project focusses on the young and less experienced dancers as
the entry point into the Quantum Leap youth dance ensemble. This year, 53
dancers, aged from 8 – 19 years, some making their first stage appearances,
participated in a work entitled “Touch”.
The great
strength of QL2 dance is that it is more focussed on process, than on execution,
and its works are always proudly ensemble. Under the guidance of professional
choreographers, the dancers explore set themes, and are encouraged to
contribute movement ideas suggested by those themes, which the choreographers
are tasked to shape into a coherent performance.
Because
their ideas become part of the end result, the dancers take ownership of the
work. The fascination for audiences is watching the personalities of the
dancers emerge, despite the variations in age and experience, as they perform
often quite complex routines.
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| "Touch" |
Taking
inspiration from Covid-19 restrictions, “Touch”, explores the effects of the
withdrawal of a basic human instinct. Five choreographers, Ruth Osborne, Steve Gow,
Alison Plevey, Olivia Fyfe and Ryan Stone, worked with groups of dancers to
create the seven episodes which make up the work.
Ryan Stone’s athletic choreography for his two episodes, “Tapestry” and “Find your Mark”, contrasted neatly with Alison Plevey’s whimsical, “Keep in Touch”, and “The Butterfly Effect”, a gentle section encouraging care for each other, for which Plevey worked with Olivia Fyfe.
Fyfe also created a section entitled “Can We Touch Now” for which she made clever use of face masks, and collaborated with Ruth Osborne and Steve Gow to create the opening section, “New Rule”.
Osborne choreographed
the final section, “Closing”, in which she cleverly corralled the 53 dancers
into referencing each of the preceding sections, in joyful celebration of
communal dance.
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| "Touch" |
All the
sections of “Touch” were performed to an evocative electronic soundscape by
Adam Ventoura, who also provided the intense, moody soundscape which drove the
second work on the program, Jack Ziesing’s , “Sympathetic Monsters”.
“Sympathetic Monsters” commences with a single
dancer, in a tight spotlight, slowly performing a series of strange,
zombie-like contortions. As the spotlight slowly widened, that dancer was replaced
with another, and another, each attempting to outdo the other in pushing their
bodies to extremes.
As each
dancer was replaced, they retired to the back wall from where they observed
their replacement until suddenly the stage erupted into a long, unison segment,
performed with admirable precision, involving all the dancers performing to
mesmerising effect, movements seemingly extracted from the individual
performances.
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| "Sympathetic Monsters " |
Taking his
inspiration from Shaun Tan’s book, “The Arrival”, Ziesing has created a
remarkably mature and challenging work for the QL2 senior dancers, to which they’ve
responded with astonishing commitment and finesse.
As is the
norm with QL2 presentations, the technical aspects of both presentations was exemplary,
particularly Cate Clelland’s muted-toned costumes for “Sympathetic Monsters”,
which were both serviceable and appropriate, as was Craig Dear’s imaginative
lighting design, and of course Adam Ventoura’s extraordinary sound design.
Because of
Covid restriction on audience numbers, all performances of “Leap Into Chaos”
are sold out. However, in another innovation for QL2 Dance, this program has
been filmed for streaming on 23rd October between 6pm and 9pm.
Details on the QL2 Dance website.
Images by LORNA SIM
This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 16.10.2020