GARDEN - QL2 Dance

"the beginning is the end is the beginning" Choreographed by Alice Lee Holland.

Artistic Director: Alice Lee Holland – Artistic Associate: Jason Pearce

Costume Designer: Andrew Treloar – Lighting Designers: Alice Lee Holland & Craig Dear

"Bloom"– Choreographed by James Batchelor – Sound design by Morgan Hickinbotham

                      Rehearsal Director: Emma Batchelor.

"the beginning is the end is the beginnning".

                      Choreographed by Alice Lee Holland – Rehearsal Assistant – Jason Pearce

      Sound design: STREAMS – Malcolm McDowell & Stevie Smiles.

The Fitters Workshop, Kingston. 2-4^th May 2025. Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

GARDEN is the over-arching title of a program of two new contemporary works, "Bloom" (James Batchelor) and "the beginning is the end is the beginning" (Alice Lee Holland)

 As an inspiration for its creation, both choreographers pay tribute to the influence of mentor and former QL2 Dance Artistic Director, Ruth Osborne OAM in shaping their approach to dance. 

For Batchelor, who worked with QL2 Dance from the age of eight, and who now lives between Berlin and Canberra, pursuing his career as a freelance artist worldwide, it was Osborne who inspired his research into Gertrud Bodenwieser who pioneered Ausdruckstanz in Australia, and of whom Osborne was a student, and later teacher.

A 20^th century European dance movement, Ausdruckstanz  emphasises personal expression over technical formality, and in his program notes Batchelor explains how he has drawn on his research into this movement to create Bloom, which involves dancers of varying ages, as a ‘powerful tribute to intergenerational transmission, danced connection, and the enduring expressive spirit of movement’.    

For Holland, who succeeds Osborne as the new Artistic Director of QL2 Dance, the connection goes even further, as she comes to QL2 Dance having spent six years as Artistic Director of STEPS Youth Dance Company for which Osborne was founding Artistic Director.

For QL2 Dance the creation of GARDEN is particularly significant as it marks Holland’s first major production as the Artistic Director of QL2 Dance and signals a major shift for the company from a traditional theatre space to the informal atmosphere of The Fitters Workshop.

But this shared artistic heritage between the two choreographers was not the only factor that led to similarities between the two works. Both were conceived for the same environment, shared the same dancers, and even the same costumes.

Deprived of the possibility of the sophisticated technical imagery associated with many previous QL2’s productions, GARDEN was presented on a vast, specially installed raised dance floor, with cross lighting providing enhancement.

For Batchelor’s creation "Bloom", created to a driving soundscape by Morgan Hickinbotham, the twenty-seven young dancers, including three from the Bangkok Dance Academy, and those whose ages ranged between nine and eighteen years, were costumed in graceful grey and green toned flowing trousers and loose tops designed by Andrew Treloar.

The Ausdruckstanz influence was reflected in the dancer’s movements as they formed sweeping waves, curves and loops while careering around the stage making only the merest eye contact to avoid collision.

Akira Byrne and Genevieve Rohrlach in a moment during "Bloom"

Some connected occasionally to execute gentle lifts, with each dancer absorbed in exploring his/her own responses while creating set angular arm and body movements.

Deliberately ensemble and scrupulously avoiding drawing attention to any individual dancer, the interest for the observer lay in observing how dancers of varying skills and experience executed the set choreographic movements within their own skill set.

For Holland’s work, "the beginning is the end is the beginning", the dancers wore the same costumes as for "Bloom", but this time overlaid with sparkly mesh tops, and for some, matched with sheer elbow-length mittens. They performed to an abrasive soundscape, entitled “Streams” composed by Malcolm McDowell and Stevie Smiles.

Although also an ensemble work, each dancer, including the youngest, moved centre stage to execute a brief self-devised spasmodic solo. These little solos were combined to create a spectacular image of dancers absorbed in performing their own unique solo simultaneously with the others.   

Elsewhere the movement was less frenetic than for the Batchelor work, and included a segment danced in impressive unison, but with the dancers creating the impression of performing for themselves rather than the audience.

This of course was in keeping with the expressed ethos of encouraging self-discovery and self- expression, while also satisfying the metaphor of growth and development inherent in the title for the program, GARDEN, while perhaps heralding a new direction for QL2 under the artistic direction of Alice Lee Holland.  

                              Images by Olivia Wikner, O & J. Photography.

    This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au