It’s not often that the Sydney Dance Company travels north, but audiences at the Arts Centre Gold Coast are in for a treat on July 15 and 16, when the SDC presents CounterMove, a stunning double-bill by Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman and the company’s own artistic director, Rafael Bonachela.
The two pieces, Bonachela’s Lux Tenebris and Ekman’s Cacti, are designed to complement one another. Eckman, who has skyrocketed to choreographic celebrity in less than ten years, has created a tongue-in-cheek, energetic piece which even dares to poke fun at contemporary dance, whilst, at the same time, celebrating it. It even features a string quartet live on stage. Rafael Bonachela’s world premiere, Lux Tenebris explores light and darkness with intense physicality and deep, electronic beats by composer Nick Wales – a long-term collaborator of Sarah Blasko’s.
In 2014 Bonachela was reappointed to the helm of SDC for a further five years which was great news for the company which has established itslf, or re-established itself, under his leadership as one of the most dynamic dance companies in the world. Born in Barcelona, Bonachela danced, and later worked as a choreographyer, for the legendary Ballet Rambert, before starting his own comapny, BDC. He choreographed his first full-length show for the SDC in 2008 with 360o, and as the company heads towards its 50th anniversary, it’s obvious that the ‘team’ is stronger than ever.
There are two things that stand out in Bonachela’s work as a choreographer – his desire for simplicity, and for the audience to relate to the dance. “I don’t make work for the critics,” he says. “I make it for the audiences. I make it for the people who buy tickets, it’s as simple as that.”
CounterMove brings together movement, music, drama, philosophy and comedy with 16 Australia’s finest dancers, and for Ekman, one of Europe’s most highly-sought-after choreographers, who has been commissioned by more than 45 leading dance company around the globe, it was a chance to bring his world-wide hit, Cacti, to an Australian audience.
The dance is set to a text which Ekman describes as: “A lot of artsy-fartsy blah blah blah. That was the whole point, to make fun of someone who thinks he is better than anyone else.” From the opening scene in which the dancers beat out a rhythm on an individual white square, Cacti is perhaps the best critic-revenge piece ever created. “It’s painful and difficult if someone doesn’t like you,” says Ekman, “but there’s nothing that says you can’t answer back!”
DeNovo Cacti. Photo: Peter Greig.
In Cacti sixteen dancers stand – seemingly trapped – on oversized Scrabble files. While the string quartet plays, spoken recordings give tongue-in-cheek narration – the dancers run, fall, writhe and ty to escape their invisible prisons. Eventually they each acquire a cactus, which they treat with the utmost reverence. The duality of life – success and failure; freedom and constraint, and the worship of false gods, are all tied up in this witty and physically joyous piece of theatre.
In contrast, Bonachela’s Light and Darkness is a full ensemble piece which explores the extremes of human experience, following deep, unexpected twists to discover the spaces in which the two are present in surprising co-esistence.
CounterMove
The Arts Theatre, The Arts Centre Gold Coast
DATES: Fri 15 Jul, 7:30pm, Sat 16 Jul, 7.30pm
COST: Adult $56.00
Concession $48.00
Group 6+ $45.00
Student / Child (U15yrs) $32.00
Student Group $27.00
Booking: 07 5588 4000 or ONLINE theartscentregc.com.au/#!countermove-2
Trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAv9JsSmGac <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAv9JsSmGac>
