Faraway, choreographer Jenni Large’s visceral new work for Australian Dance Theatre (ADT), transports us to a roiling, fecund wilderness ruled by primal drives and desires. Watching it feels akin to viewing a feverish, R-rated wildlife animation directed by Shinya Tsukamoto or Gakuryū Ishii and illustrated by Francisco Goya, if such a mash-up of styles and genres should dare to exist; it’s a wild, thrilling ride.
Moments of slow, deliberate movement – a harpist emerging from darkness into a circle of light; seven dancers crawling across the stage; a hulking, Muppet-like gorilla creeping through dappled shadows – contrast with explosive action and driving, exhilarating beats.
On rare occasions, especially early in proceedings, Large’s stage feels overly busy and her vision chaotic – presumably a deliberate choice – over which she quickly exerts control. Similarly, a sequence late in the piece, after a fake ending which hints at returning to where we began before spinning off into entirely new directions, feel slightly over-extended.
Elsewhere, bodies swing pendulum-like from knotted lianas; dancers leap, writhe, roll, groan and ululate, displaying themselves sexually one moment and giving birth the next. A potentate is carried on a human throne and his kisses are fatal; a formless creature oozes across the forest floor, devouring and absorbing all life in its path.
Faraway: fearless and intense
Large, an Australian dancer, choreographer and director living in lutruwita/Tasmania, has constructed a fascinating work on the bodies of ADT’s seven dancers: Joshua Doctor, Macon Escobal Riley, Yilin Kong, Zachary Lopez, Karra Nam, Patrick O’Luanaigh and Zoe Wozniak. It’s rich, bold and fearless, though its tone – and music – may be too intense or abrasive for some.
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In her program notes, Large describes Faraway as ‘an attempt to destigmatise (even desensitise) sexualisation by celebrating the sexualised body and by exposing raw and fantastical depictions of these experiences and forms. Kink is theatrical, Fairytales can be fetishistic… What is the erotic if not a way to deepen our quality of life? It’s all magic, really.’
A trio of female-presenting dancers vividly convey desire and arousal before the sequence transmogrifies into a butoh-esque birthing sequence, in which all the messiness and labour of bringing a child into the world is conveyed in swift, free-flowing moments without a drop of blood – or any other liquids save sweat – being spilled.
Thereafter, a coarsely woven fabric net is first stretched and held aloft in reverence before its fabric is spun together to form a rope; the extended skipping sequence which follows is genuinely thrilling, simultaneously showcasing the dancers’ exquisite skills and superb timing as well as the ambition of Large’s choreography.
Meg Wilson’s fetish wear-inspired costumes evoke the gothic-industrial dancefloor while Anna Whitaker’s compositions and sound design take us from tribal jungle to urban jungle and back again, ably abetted by Alex Berlage’s smoky and striking lighting.
The stage itself is flogged; the dancers peel off layers of their costumes, like snakes shedding their skin or crabs shedding their shells – and like crabs, they skitter sideways across the stage. The score pounds; movement slows in counterpoint.
Faraway is by turns aggressive and animalistic, spiritual and gentle: a manifestation of the tension between the urges of the body and the aspirations of the soul. ADT is now a sexagenarian, but the company shows no signs of slowing down.
Australian Dance Theatre’s Faraway plays the Odeon Theatre, Norwood until 1 March as part of the 2026 Adelaide Festival.
Richard Watts visited Adelaide as a guest of Adelaide Festival.
