Sydney Dance Company’s hour-long program at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, 2 One Another, was packed with movement, light, and abstract forms. The piece opened with the full company of 16 onstage, 13 tightly arranged in a bowling-pin formation, two seated on the diagonal downstage, and one standing alone upstage right. Silence preceded Nick Wales’ voluminous score, and within it, the dancers moved as one, lightly probing the space: 16 heads turned, 16 shoulders lowered, and a chorus of gestural movements softly succeeded. When the music did begin with a droning note, a whisper subtly introduced a few passages of text, which had been written by collaborator Samuel Webster. The words themselves were difficult to make out, but the human voice seemed to establish the presence of the bodies onstage and their intention to communicate something. Artistic Director and choreographer Rafael Bonachela’s movement soon quickened, building in layers, now accompanied by a moving backdrop of LED lights designed by Benjamin Cisterne. An ever-shifting balance was struck between detailed partnering work and a thread of unison along which the piece flowed and pulsed. Associations between individual dancers were abruptly broken by this tide of unison, and dancers alternated between the two choreographic […]
↧