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| "Held in Flesh" - Choreographed by Rory Warne |
Project
Director: Ruth Osborne – Mentor: Alison
Plevey
Produced by
Emma Batchelor and Natalie Wade
Lighting
Design: Guy Harding.
Choreographers:
Cassidy Thomson, Christopher Wade, Leyla Boz, Liam Berg, Magnus Meagher, Mia
Canton, Rory Warne, Ruby Ballantyne.
QL2 Theatre,
16th and 17th December, 2023.
Performance
on 16th December reviewed by BILL STEPHENS
Returning
after a hiatus of three years due to the dreaded Covid pandemic, “On Course” is
a choreographic project initiated by QL2 Dance to provide QL2 alumni
undertaking full-time tertiary studies at universities around Australia, with the
facilities necessary to create, in two weeks, an original short dance work for
presentation in front of a paying audience.
Those
facilities include dancers, rehearsal space and professional mentorship, with
no restrictions as to topic or style. For the aspiring choreographers it offers
a rare opportunity to try their creative wings in a supportive environment. For
the audience, an opportunity to see what influences those choreographers have
absorbed since leaving the creative hotbed of QL2 Dance.
Three choreographers,
who were unable to return to Canberra, presented their works on film. Cassidy
Thomson, a Quantum Leaper from 2016 to 2022, currently studying at VAC,
explored notions of ‘ephemerality’ with her cleverly edited film “We Live This
Very Ephemeral Life” in which her own filmed movements were intercut with
intriguing images.
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| Meya Canton and Leyla Boz in their film "Warped Reality". |
Mia Canton
and Leyla Boz also both studying dance at VCA, drew on film of themselves
performing mostly unison movement in and around a bright yellow sculpture to
produce a visually engaging work entitled “Warped Reality”.
A Quantum
Leaper from 2016 – 2022, Magnus Meagher is currently studying Screen and Media
at RMIT in Melbourne. Meagher took the opportunity to create, and introduce, a
veritable love-letter to the Canberra of his childhood, with his diverting film,
“ Run Point” for which he filmed dancers, Christopher Wade, Jahna Lugnan and
Sam Tonna, all of whom performed in other works during the evening, dashing
blissfully, Parkour-like, through various dreamy photogenic locations around
Canberra.
The first of
the live presentations, all of which were introduced in person by their
choreographer, was introduced by one of the dancers featured in “Run Point”,
Christopher Wade.
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| "The Space Between" choreographed by Christopher Wade |
Having just
completed his Master of Dance at VCA, Wade joined dancers Liam Berg, Rory
Warne, Maya Willie-Bellchambers and Julia Villaflor to perform his own work “The
space Between” for which he drew on personal experience to create a fascinating
exploration of various life styles utilising unison movement, unusual lifts and
groupings.
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| Christopher Wade and Liam Berg in "Therapy" choreographed by Liam Berg |
Liam Berg
also completed his MA in Dance at VCA, after training at Australian Ballet
School and John Cranko Schule in Stuttgart. Berg drew on his interest in
therapeutic movement to create a joyous, tongue-in-cheek duet, which he
performed with Christopher Wade, to music by Dianna Ross and Boy Harsher, deftly
transforming repetitive rhythmic movement and facial exercises into
delightfully entertaining dance.
Perhaps the
most ambitious work of the evening was created by Rory Warne, a graduate of
Sydney Dance Company’s Pre-professional year (2021) and VAC (2023). Performed by Liam Berg, Jahna Lugnan, Julia
Villaflor, Arshiya Abhishree, Maya Wille-Bellchambers and Sam Tonna to an
original composition by Ethan Oppy, “Held in Flesh” explored a particularly
dancerly topic - the body as an archive and vessel of potential – for which the
dancers performed complicated self-absorbed groupings, sometimes resembling
shop mannequins until finally, one-by-one, exiting the stage.
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| Ruby Ballantyne performing her work "Diary of a teenage 23 year old" |
However it
was a solo, “Diary of a teenage 23 year old”, performed by Ruby Ballantyne, a
Quantum Leaper for 5 years who describes herself as a contemporary dancer,
actor, painter, rug maker and starry-eyed dreamer, who completed her Bachelor
of Fine Arts (Dance) at WAAPA in 2022, before participating in professional
dance and performance workshops in Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam, and who will commence
acting studies at NIDA in 2024, that was the most original offering of the evening.
Responding
to a compelling pre-recorded stream-of-consciousness voice-over recording of
her own voice, Ballantyne performed a mesmerising, virtuosic mime-show exposing
her insecurities about aging (at 23 ?), angsting over missing out on new
life-experiences by spending too much time cherishing past experiences, until,
finally collapsing in a panic attack.
With “Diary
of a teenage 23 year old” Ballantyne has created a remarkable showcase for her
toolbox of unique acting and dancing skills which should hold her in good stead
for a successful career as a performing artist.
Following a series
of well-staged bows, the choreographers and dancers joined the audience for a Q
& A about their creations and process.
Images by O & J Wikner Photography
This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au