Sydney Dance Company Ab [intra] | His Majesty’s Theatre | Until 30th June | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Â
The show takes it name from the Latin phrase for ‘from within’ and in this hour long piece the acclaimed choreographer explored the transfer of energy from the internal to the external.
Bonachela collaborates one again with choreographer Nick Wales, who provides a soundtrack that traverses from sublime romantic strings to guttural growls and thuds.
The space for the dancers is larger than Stage at His Majesty’s, spreading out into the wings, the theatre’s grand proscenium arch acting as a portal to another place.
Through the work this simple space is transformed by some incredible lighting design from Damian Cooper. The dancers often appear as blurry outlines surrounded by hazy white light, and other times they are dark foreboding shadows. Impressively with a sudden change in lighting the space is transformed over and over.
The choreography is energetic, fast paced and intricate, we quickly move through different combinations of dancer’s performing together. There are mesmerising duets, pairings of trios, and fast interchanges between two or three dancers being on stage and the whole company being involved.
The moments when every dancer on stage suddenly dance in unison are powerful, but they quickly disperse again and follow different paths. Forever grouping and releasing, constantly changing and always in motion. Bonachela’s signature style shining through.
The Sydney Dance Company lives up to their world class reputation and on opening night were rewarded with a long round of applause and well deserved bows.
Graeme Watson
