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| SPHERE - Alison Plevey - Ashlee Bee - Gabriel Sinclair |
Directed by Alison Plevey and Sara Black
Composer: Sia Ahmad – Videography & Editing: Creswick
Collective
Costumes: Kelli Donovan - Stage Manager: Anna Davies.
Dancers: Alison Plevey, Sara Black, Ashlee Bee, Gabriel Sinclair,
Pat Hayes Cavanagh, Jahna Lugnan, Jason Pearce, Mia Rashid.
The Vault – Dairy Road Precinct - 14-16th May
2026.
Performance on 14th May reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.
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| SPHERE - Mia Rasheed - Gabriel Sinclair - Sara Black |
For ten years Australian Dance Party has been challenging
audiences with site-specific creations across the Australian Capital Territory.
Born out of a passion for her environment, dance artist
Alison Plevey has sustained a professional contemporary dance company dedicated
to alerting audiences not only to degradation and waste, but also to the joys derived
from awakening and participation.
She does this by creating works which are fun, witty, challenging
and always thought-provoking and most often in unusual environments that have
inspired the works. Among them the National Botanical Gardens, Mount Majura
Solar Farm and other National Cultural Institutions and architectural icons.
With SPHERE, an ambitious multi-discipline work with which
the ADP is celebrating its 10th year, Plevey has drawn inspiration
from a suite of extraordinary videos shot in forests around Canberra as well as
the possibilities offered by the building in which it is staged. Plevey and her
co-Director, Sara Black, have created a huge immersive artwork which incorporates
elements of dance, film and sound.
Both Plevey and Black participate in the work, together with
their dancers, Ashlee Bee, Gabriel Sinclair, Pat Hayes Cavanagh, Jahna Lugnan,
Jason Pearce and Mia Rashid as well as their entire audience.
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| SPHERE - Jahna Lugna. |
The Vault provides the perfect environment. Originally a
huge, unlovely, concrete building in the Dairy Road Precinct, which began its
life as storage for government documents, the Vault, through the imagination, leadership
and energy of David Caffey, now exists as a multi-purpose entertainment venue.
Although Plevey has explored its possibilities before, for
this work she has embraced its vastness by stripping it back to its four walls.
On entering the building, the audience finds themselves
inhabiting an unfamiliar world. Coloured spotlights piece though a low-lit misty
atmosphere, through which figures, some in trailing costumes, glide silently.
A disembodied voice invites arrivals to explore the area,
choose one of the many low seats scattered through-out, perhaps spread a rug
near the cosy fireplace and sip an aperitif from the nearby bar as they settle expectantly
for the performance to begin.
Unannounced, the lights fade to black, a haunting soundtrack
begins, and the entire space magically becomes lush forest.
The projections which cover the four walls are startingly
sharp and clear. Dancing figures can be seen among the forest growth, so close
and lifelike that it is easy to imagine that one could join them.
Then you notice that the dancers are interacting with the
projected images, and you find yourself being drawn into a surreal, increasingly
captivating world. The effect is curious and quite discombobulating.
SPHERE is presented in four sections each differentiated
by a short black-out. The dance style is
abstract, often bordering on improvised movement as individual dancers gracefully
move through tightly focussed spotlights.
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| SPHERE - Pat Hayes Cavanagh |
In some sections the dancers lift each other as they appear to walk up walls. In another, they combine to form a huge human ball with their bodies to allow another to languish on top of them as they move along. Other sections have the dancers surrounded by exotic tiling or drawing hieroglyphics in chalk on the floor.
Make what you will of what you see, SPHERE offers a provocative,
tantalising, fascinating experience to celebrate the first ten years of existence
for the Australian Dance Party.
All images by O & J Wikner Photography
This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au
