WA Ballet | Five by Night: Ballet at The Quarry | Until Feb 27 | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The WA Ballet’s annual outing to the Quarry Amphitheatre has become a highlight of their program. A delightful selection of shorter modern dance works, with usually three to four pieces on the menu, and normally you’d find you’d like most of what was of offer, but probably not everything. This year is different. This year there are five outstanding pieces of work.
First up was ‘5’ by UK choreographer David Dawson, a piece of work designed to push the dancer ballet technique to the limit. It was fast, skittish and frenetic. It was almost as the dancers had been asked to perform too many movements in the time allowed, the five performers appearing to be on ‘fast forward’ while they energetically zapped around the stage.
The second piece ‘To the Pointe’ was a fabulous mash-up of classical ballet and hip hop. The dancer began at a barre, bright spotlights capturing each dancer as the sounds of Eric B and Rakim’s ‘Paid in Full’ blasted across the amphitheatre. The ballet dancers were joined by guest performer Pepito who added his break dance moves to the proceedings. Also in the musical mix was elements of ‘Hey Big Spender’ which subverted the prim and proper image of ballet.
‘Ambiguous Context’ from choreographer Craig Davidson saw the dancers displaying great leaps and moments of strength. The lighting of this piece saw the dancers appearing and disappearing in the spotlights.
Again the musical selection offered so much to the work tapping into tunes from Philip Glass, Max Richter, Olafur Arnalds, Bach, Johann Paul von Westhoff and Johann Johnansson (Johansson will be in town soon for PIAF).
The second piece from David Dawson, On the Nature of Daylight’ was a beautiful pas de deux featuring Matthew Lehmann and ballet mistress Sandy Delasalle, making a return to the stage.
The highlight of this fine program was the final piece, ‘In Black’ choreographed by the company’s own Andre Santos. The work which was described as a reflection on a dancer’s training was mesmerizing. At one point four male dancers were dancing so tightly in synchronisation – leaping, twisting, turning and showing great power and strength. It was magnificent!
The evening saw friends and supporters of the WA Ballet farewell long serving General Manager Steven Roth, and Principal Dancer Jayne Smeulders announced her retirement.
Images: Sergey Pevnev
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