Sydney Dance Company, April, 2019

[jmb]

Sydney Dance Companies' latest celebrates 90 years of performance, which appears to be an improbably long time. Deborah Jones, in her review, cites 50 years, but 90 years was projected onto the stage curtain last night. Whatever, the program shows SDC to be in rude health. It consisted of three works: Bonacela's  Cinco, Nankivell's Neon Aether and Lane's Woof. 

Lane's Woof is an unforgettable creation, for me the first two thirds of which brought the Elgin marbles strongly to mind. Not in terms of the shapes created by individual dancers, but by the way that groups of dancers defined the space around them: triangles, squares, rectangles. Much of the dancing in the last third was on demi-point and dancers gradually moved from the geometric shapes created by groups to pairings and single dancers, although the group as a whole remained on stage. 

Nankivell's Neon Aether, to a clanking, banging score that at times included the human voice, evokes our relationship with space, outer space. As with Woof, the group predominates, but a red-clad Ariella Casu strikes an individual and often lonely figure, especially as the piece closes with her dancing alone on a mist-shrouded stage. 

Bonacela's Cinco, featuring, not unexpectedly, five dancers to Alberto Ginastera's Second String Concerto, is a completely abstract work devoted to exploring the relationship between movement and music, and between the dancers and the shapes they make. 

Overall, a memorable evening, and one which promises a rich and fulfilling 50 (or 90!) years to come. 

Edited April 14, 2019 by jmb