The creativity and excellence in diverse forms of movement and the emotion it generated in Week 1 of Dance X continues with aplomb into Week 2. The major program has four companies each performing a short work over a total of two hours including interval, at Playhouse in Arts Centre Melbourne.
Stephanie Lake Company’s Auto Cannibal is a development from that commissioned by other companies, which premiered in Beijing in 2019. To striking sounds and a pulsating score by Robin Fox, 11 talented dancers dressed in monochrome move in unison, arms in perfect synchronicity. The work is intended as an ode to reusing, repurposing and reinvigorating. In choreography, ideas are often regenerated and evolve, and so it is here to grand effect.
Pops of striking colour – blue, green, purple and pink – find favour on the 14 athletic, energetic dancers from the West Australian Ballet in Extension to Boom. They twist and turn and leap in various formations, interpreting the rolling booms and dynamic landscapes embedded in the music by Bryce Dessner. The piece is seen as a collective journey punctuated by Eureka moments.
After interval comes the extension of a graphic novel in dance form. The Australian Ballet and Tim Harbour produce The Delivery, which has a film noir element to it. Three dancers perform a work of seduction in which a couple – the woman who is pregnant and her partner – fall prey to a manipulative conman. We are in a café. The couple is front of house staff, attending to a businessman, when blood is spilt. I was thoroughly engaged in the narrative arc, as mysterious as it may have been.
Finally, 16 members of Bangarra Dance Theatre explode on stage with an excerpt from Yuldea. It is the story of the Anangu people of the Great Victorian Desert and Frances Rings’ first work as artistic director of the company. With original music by Leon Rodgers, it captures the moment traditional life collided with the industrial ambition of a growing nation and becomes quite vigorous.
The second week’s program for Dance X finishes on 19th October, although the four works I have referenced end on 18th October, 2025. For more information and to book, just Google Dance X Festival Melbourne.
Alex First
Other reviews you might enjoy:
- Dance X (The Australian Ballet) at Arts Centre Melbourne – modern dance review
- DanceX (Arts Centre Melbourne) – dance review
- Flesh Vessel (Arts Centre Melbourne) – dance review
Alex First is the editor of The Blurb. Alex is a Melbourne based journalist and communications specialist. He also contributes to The Blurb on film and theatre.