Dancenorth Australia has again provided their ensemble dancers the rare opportunity to make and present their own short works for the latest Tomorrow Makers series. This year’s six makers received full production support, including creative collaborations with their peers, curatorial support from Dancenorth’s Co-Artistic Director Amber Haines, expert lighting design from Yoshie Kenny, and strong production and stage management by Candice Marshall and Felicity Organ-Moore respectively.
This combination of excellent support systems ensured that each artist’s vision was delivered at an extremely high level, albeit with expected variations in subject, tone and effectiveness. What shone through this diversity was a company that understands performance and narrative, and one that leans into appropriate moments of light and shade. The cinematic opening and closing scenes to many of the works, for instance, elevated and differentiated each piece.
The viewing perspectives were also considered thoroughly. Audiences were seated on the floor, in the round, for the first two performances, sharing ground level with the performers’ bodies. This made for a startling introduction to the first performer and maker Michael Smith’s work Angel Down. In an aptly abrupt cut from black, Smith appeared suddenly contorted and laying face-down, seemingly broken or fallen from grace. His almost-drag-makeup and vibrant outfit – a pink two-piece and elongated makeshift platform boots – quickly built upon this character introduction. What followed was a disarmingly nuanced performance of someone finding their voice and strength. Smith’s purposefully dissonant movements, alternating between vulnerability, physicality and control, were a Tomorrow Makers highlight.
Jag Popham’s Ernest Livingstone similarly opened with the performer upended; his body inverted in a headstand and his legs cycling in slow-motion, searching the air for solid ground. This anti-gravity sensibility, paired with Popham’s hiker attire and full backpack, suggested an astronaut exploring new territory. Pairing this materiality with the physicality of gentle movements and a spoken-word piece, the work skilfully conjured allegorical references to heavy burdens and the sense of weightlessness upon their release.
Trashworld by Damian Meredith shifted the tone significantly, opening to simulated thunder and lightning flashes across a stark, trash-filled ‘game’. Meredith and fellow performer Tiana Lung were introduced as comical characters entering the real world. They ‘levelled up’ by taking correctly deemed courses of action. While driven by humour and aesthetics, the performers were perhaps most effective when wonderfully in sync, moving abruptly to the arcade sounds of the game.
After a brief interval, audiences were invited into a delicate exploration of self (or of doppelgangers) in Sabine Crompton-Ward’s She Looks Like Me. The dancer appeared in an arched window, followed soon afterwards by slow, feline-like arched movements and stretches. Quicker and more disjointed movements also followed, embracing discomfort and unease. The central sequence featuring lighting and shadow-play precisely and hypnotically extended concepts of revealing and becoming.
Fitting In, Falling Out by Aleeya McFadyen-Rew was performed by Crompton-Ward, Lung and Popham. The work navigated the dancers’ quest to reclaim a seat, undignifiedly pushing, pulling and shifting each other’s bodies to achieve smug superiority. Despite acting in opposition, the dancers complemented each other beautifully. Mozart’s orchestral score, alongside simple stage props, brilliantly assisted with this work’s world-building.
Read: Performance review: The Birds, Malthouse Theatre
The final act, It’s Just Dancing by Lung featured dancers responding to choreographic prompts from the disembodied, digitally-altered voice of Felix Sampson. These Darwin Deez-esque prompts enabled performers Crompton-Ward, McFadyen-Rew, Meredith and Popham to excel in individualised movements. Popham and McFadyen-Rew were particular standouts, writhing, shifting and embodying the prompts. Amid the diverse responses, the synchronised sequences featuring all four dancers were joyous. The closing scene was a fitting end to the entire production – a celebratory crescendo verbally reiterating the titular untruth – “it’s just dancing”.
Tomorrow Makers 7
Makers/Performers: Sabine Crompton-Ward, Tiana Lung, Aleeya McFadyen-Rew, Damian Meredith, Jag Popham and Michael Smith
Featuring: Felix Sampson
Curator: Amber Haines
Lighting Designer and Technical Operator: Yoshie Kenny
Production Manager: Candice Marshall
Stage Manager: Felicity Organ-Moore
Tickets: $0-40.
Dancenorth’s final performances of Tomorrow Makers 7 will be held on 23 and 24 May at Dancenorth Australia.
