Love / Less | State Theatre Centre | Until 22 September | ★ ★ ★ ★ Â
Love / Less and Next is a double bill of dance works as part of the Move Me Festival. A bold new work from choreographer Kynan Hughes is presented alongside a rotating selection of shorter works from STRUT Dance Company.
First up was #thatwomanjulia created by Sally Richardson and Natalie Allen. Drawing upon Julia Gillard time as the nation’s leader the work utilises a soundtrack of sound grabs of speeches from the former Prime Minister as well as sound of other people talking about her.
The work was presented in the round, the usual racked seating of the Studio Underground removed to create a giant performance space with a single row of chairs around the perimeter. In the middle of the room is an office chair and a giant desk. A woman strides into the space, suited and heeled, her hair is a bright red bob. Not Julia Gillard red, Fire Engine red, crimson as arterial blood.
She circles the room. shaking hands, posing for selfies, waving to the crowd, it’s a break neck pace. Round and round we go. Soon she is making decisions pointing at people, slamming her first down on the table, firing off steely glances.
We descend quickly into a more manic stage, there’s a transformation from cool and confident politician to gross caricatures, madness descends. Performer Natalie Allen transforms, she’s no longer Julia Gillard, she’s not that woman, she’s every woman. Powerful and defiant.
It’s an interesting concept, depicting a Prime Ministership in dance work, while former PM’s might have got a satirical musical or an ABC TV comedy series this might be the first time interpretive dance has nailed a political journey.
Audiences attending on Saturday night will get to see this work, those attending on Thursday and Friday will be presented Blushed which is choreographed and performed by Yilin Kong.
After a short interval the stage is cleared for the major work of the evening Love / Less from choreographer Kynan Hughes.
Three dancers lay on the floor, Marlo Benjamin, Rachel Arianne Ogle and Alexander Perrozzi. Slowly they being to interact, remaining on the floor they roll and sliver around each other.
Their movements are intimate, often their faces are just millimeters apart, they embrace and reject each other, coming together and falling away. They appear close physically and distant emotionally.
Hughes has described this as a work about intimacy, loss and grief. He was inspired to create the work after the death of his father and it explores the grief and depression that can follow.
The choreography is precise and intricate, slowly unfolding and developing. What is occurring between the three performers is not overt storytelling, but the emotions are undeniable, through their movement they create a atmosphere where your thoughts begin to dwell on relationships, breakups and starting over.
Sound Designer and composer Sascha Budimski has created a mesmerising soundtrack that traverses a wide range of sounds from a heartbeat paced drumming through to more orchestral and luscious sounds. The lighting created by Joe Lui is highly effective in segregating the huge performances space into different zones, constantly changing and recreating the space over and over.
While this is a bold and confident work that cleverly evokes an emotional state, is also longer than I needed it to be, three quarters of the way through I began hoping that the sequence before me was a conclusion, but it kept going, with new sections starting again and again – but maybe that’s a good analogy for the experience of grief – it keeps coming back in waves.
Love / Less is playing until Saturday 22 September, head to STRUT Dance for tickets.
Graeme Watson, images Emma Fishwick.Â
Correction and apology: An early version of this article suggested that the program was put on by STRUT Dance Company, only the first half of the show involves STRUT Dance Company. Love / Less is presented by Kynan Hughes. OUTinPerth apologies to both the team at STRUT and Kynan Hughes for the error. Â
