Sydney Dance Company ab [intra]

ab [intra]

Sydney Dance Company

Choreography by Rafael Bonachela

Music by Nick Wales

Roslyn Packer Theatre

Reviewed by Ron Lee, CSP

Has it really been 11 years since Graeme Murphy left the Sydney Dance Company?

Choreographer and Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela is continuing Murphy’s legacy of combining classical ballet and modern dance with innovation.

Before the international tour, ab [intra] is being staged at the Roslyn Packer Theatre.

It opened with atonal music by Nick Wales and 15 dancers in minimalist costuming by David Fleischer. The music transformed into waves of sounds flowing over and through the audience for an almost hypnotic effect.

The choreography phases through inordinate flexibility, to unbelievable contortion to eroticism, and is always impressive.

Bonachela’s choreography appears to be less structured than Murphy’s, with the latter’s works such as After Venice, Daphnis and Chloé, Beyond Twelve, Salome and Some Rooms having definite story lines and plots.

This latest production of ab [intra] is on a different plane; it’s as if the movements come from the “non-conscious”. In martial arts parlance, it’s “effortless effort”, a flow of energy that’s undeniable.

This phase of the Sydney Dance Company is interesting indeed.

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