Alternative Media Group

BALLET: BODYTORQUE 2.2

Author:

Amelia G

Posted:

Monday, 18 May 2009

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Five emerging choreographers get the chance to experiment and to creatively collaborate with artists of The Australian Ballet, and audiences get a chance to experience the results in an intimate setting.

Bodytorque unearths fresh new choreographic talent under a specific theme every year, and this year’s theme is ‘partnership’. Principal Artist Robert Curran, who will be returning with a new piece called Veiled in Flesh, says “as a dancer my favorite thing has been partnering on stage, especially the intuitive connections of dancing with a female partner – facilitating lifting and turning and making her feel beautiful.”

There’s always collaboration in dance, he says, but he’s chosen to focus on real-life intimate relationships rather than creative partnerships. As a starting point he was inspired by Michael Ondaatje’s novel In the Skin of a Lion, and the author’s ideas about physical, non-verbal communication between couples.

“I was interested in ideas of touch in our technological age where a lot of intimacy and nuances of communication are lost,” he says. “When everyone is connecting remotely via phones, emails or the media, we loose the communication of touch.” On stage he will be using television screens depicting still images (by Senior Artist Lana Jones, who is a budding photographer), to show how representations on a screen are never the same. “Images on the TV are not as clear, they’re two dimensional, you don’t hear or see things in real time, and you loose that sense of touch, which is the central idea of the work.”

Curran will be joined by The Australian Ballet’s Damien Welch, Remi Wörtmeyer and the 2008 Telstra Ballet Dancer Award winner Kevin Jackson, who are stepping out as choreographers for the very first time. Also on the programme is Reed Luplau, a former artist of Sydney Dance Company.

“As someone starting out in choreography, it’s amazing to have the opportunity to work with the dancers of The Australian Ballet,” says Curran. “The programme offers an extraordinary network of support from the rehearsal process to stage management to lighting, music and costume; it’s a great honour and a huge learning curb.” On for five performances only, Bodytorque 2.2 is a must for anyone curious as to how ballet is keeping up with the times.

May 27-30. Sydney Theatre, 22 Hickson Road Walsh Bay. $33-61, 9250 1999 or sydneytheatre.org.au

 

Photo by Tim Richardson

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