Australian Ballet; A triple bill to dream of

The Dream

The Australian Ballet

Opera House, Sydney

May 15

Arts Centre Melbourne June 4-13, and Adelaide Festival Centre July 8-9

We get well served by the Royal New Zealand Ballet with mix of classical and contemporary works but Australian Ballet is able to present a much more extensive programme, presenting works which might never be seen in New Zealand.

Their most recent programme has been a triple bill of work by the English choreographer Frederick Ashton who was a major influence in the post war era right through till the 1970's. He brought a thoughtful abstraction and a focus on a reworking of the classical style, providing a transition through to contemporary forms.

Revisiting his works fills in a gap in ballet history, provides an understanding of contemporary dance and in the case of one of the works, The Dream, an insight into the way that literature and dance can fused.

The first work on the programme, Monotones II featured three dancers in a work which was inspired by the first space flights.

The dancers at times can be seen as representing celestial bodies or satellites as they rotate and intersect with each other. The white clad dancers revolve around each other with seamless movement, furling and unfurling, at times following some predetermined plan at others, shifting in their methodical approach. The dance underscores the essential abstract qualities of dance and like the music is about form and movement.

There are hints of classical dance as well as what could be imagined as dance of Ancient Greece as well as traditional acrobatic performances., There were no emotional attachments between the dancers as they engaged in intimate linkages the dancers using their bodies to display elegance of movement, at times looking like animated sculptures at others like apparitions.

Nataasha Kusen as the female dancer was manipulated by the two male dancers much of the time assisting her into arabesques and pirouettes while Brett Simon and Jared Wright often seemed to be mimicking Kusen, the three of them giving the sense of an unfolding poem. The second work on the programme was Symphonic Variations, using the music of Cesar Franck and featured six dancers, three male and three female.

The work was essentially abstract with much of their movement deriving from scientific principles and mechanics.

This was underscored by the backdrop which featured overlaid sine waves connecting both the dancer’s movements and the music itself. Like the sine curves the dancer’s movements and rhythms overlapped and intersected, at times in tune with the music at others at odds, creating minor variations, as though the dancers were leaving traces or echoes of themselves.

There was also a sense that the dancers were creating all the variations which could be composed using the six dancers.

While there was no narrative there was a strict control, the emphasis on austerity, abstraction and emotional detachment. The main work on the programme, The Dream revolves around various notions of love when the King of Fairyland, Oberon with his helpful sprite Puck attempts to change the course of true love, resulting in several of the characters falling in love for another having had a magical juice dropped into their eyes.

One of the new romances develops between Oberon’s queen, Titania and a local rustic Bottom whom Puck has also given a donkey’s head. Christiano Martino as Oberon gave an exceptional performance, dominating the stage with aggressive leaps and extravagant posturing Puck, danced by Chengwu Guo was entertaining with his relentless energy, sprightly dancing and mightily leaps Dancing the part of Bottom is difficult as the dancer has to be both an oafish rustic and a sensitive lover.

Luke Marchant managed to get the character just right, delightful when he performed en pointe with Madeleine Eastoe as Tatania, their slightly inelegant dance producing superb comic moments as when he nuzzles her face and breast with his donkey head Eastoe provided a delicacy of dancing which was reinforced by the bevy of fairies who occasionally filled the stage, creating a sparkling and mysterious fairy world.

The other sets of mere mortal lovers Natasha Kusen, Dimity Azoury, Andrew Wright and Christopher Rodgers-Wilson provided a colourful series of pantomime inspired dances which provided inventive dancing with superb timing and witty acting.

The work is a well-conceived and directed ballet bringing together Shakespeare, the notions of English Romanticism, mythic gods to create a witty and engaging adult fairy tale.

Future Programmes: Cinderella - June 19 - 27, Melbourne Giselle, July 2 – 6 Adelaide

The Royal NZ Ballet will be presenting A Midsummers Night Dream - August 20 – September 20