Any residual notion of Sydney's wild, or mild, west being a cultural desert is defunct. The latest nail in the coffin of this urban prejudice is Western Sydney Dance Actions association with Riverside Theatres, Parramatta, to present youMove, a youth dance initiative. Their inaugural production, This Way Up, kicked-off last night, in Riverside's Lennox Theatre. It's somewhat topsy-turvy, by conventional standards, but, firstly, I'd like to echo artistic director Kay Armstrong's lauding of lighting designer, Guy Harding, who brought a very polished and professional standard of imagination and expertise to bear. For that matter, you can only admire, too, the generous, multifaceted contributions of Kay and cohorts, who work for love which, when push comes to shove, doesn't buy much at Coles or Woolies. Or even Aldi.
youMove convenes at Connect Studios which, I understand, is a progressive move, by council, to provide accessible arts spaces. Late last year, auditions were held, culminating in selection of 14 dancers and 'dancemakers'. The result is Sydney's only (believe it, or not) youth dance company.
The evening began, ironically, with Last Dance, choreographed by the very accomplished and widely-affiliated Jodie McNeilly. She's artistic director of co-producers, Nothing But A Confused Walk, teaches at Sydney & Mac unis, is putting the finishing touches to her Doctorate in Performance Studies and is, otherwise, detestably over-achieving (joking, Jodie). According to McNeilly's programme notes, 'Last Dance distorts ideal representations of the dangerous woman'. Aha. What I saw were some clumsily constructed and utilised opaque pods and clunky, incoherent tableaux, devoid of choreographic cohesion. It wasn't a good showcase for the skills of the dancers. The soundtrack was overly loud and aflicted with a cliched cacophony of grating sounds. I caught myself thinking, ' I hope it get's better' and contemplating a runner. Far from subverting our aculturation to women as objects and 'fetishised seductresses', this work left me cold and aggravated, in mortal danger of its ideation eclipsing the reality on stage. In fact, it was, for mine, verging on an unwitting parody of itself and the worst excesses of modern dance, more generally.
Heel, by Vicki Van Hout, was a conceptual relief: 'a playful look at the relationship between man and dog'. There were some cute ideas, but it was as much characterisation and dramatic-comedic performance as dance. I wouldn't want to (dare I say) embark on a debate as to how, when and where lines can or should be drawn but, as dance, it was, on the whole, rather unsatisfying and unaesthetic. Still and all, it was fun and novel; the highlight being the narration by Van Hout, which was clever, surprising and expressive. In terms of intuiting its audience and likely popularity, it was brilliant. But, without being snobbish, it wasn't as danceworthy as I might've liked, or expected, from this versatile, hands-on practitioner. Meanwhile, the soundtrack, ahem, unleashed every dog song known to man. Someone Googled.
Human Meter (I'd plump, as a diehard linguistic traditionalist, for metre), by Anton, with a truly original score, by Sacha Budminski, was refreshing. This 'collage of precise physical dance', and more, was just as promised: no pretensions; veering nowhere near disappearance into its own, well, etoile. Moreover, it's a work that makes the young, committed dancers look every bit as good as they are. Though this work, too, tends to cross the dramatic bridge somewhat, it's wholly in context and doesn't detract from the central motif on which this abstract work pivots: a metronome suffices as a metaphor for the enslaving effects of clock-time. It toys, delightfully, with the fantasy of asserting ourselves over it, to break free of our robotic subservience. It's daring, dynamic, fresh and fabulous: everything modern dance ought to be, without compromising, pandering, or patronising.
The momentum was capitalised upon with another extraordinarily good idea, in the form of A Day In The Life Of; a true-to-life, evocative, eerily resonant take on a 'normal' schoolday. The cast collaborated with Emma Saunders (who you might know from The Fondue Set, apart from any other context) to humourous effect. Moreover, any aesthetic 'messiness' was excusable, given the context; a neat, smart way to compensate for any imperfections or inexperience.
While there's no doubting the credentials or abilities of McNeilly, I fear, in trying to fly high, she's crashed into Everest. I'm not sure elevated, academic notions make a secure scaffold on which to build a youth dance company. Her colleagues seem to have a better measure of what might work.
In reviewing the evening, I've been as hard, or easy, on youMove as anyone or anything else. I hope this proves in the ongoing interests of the venture, since it's vital such ventures are just that. Ongoing.
In closing, I'd like to big-up the enthusiastic efforts of Imogen Cranna, Alana Santi, Ana Porter, Melinda Tyquin, Jayne McCann, Anna Healey, Natalie Pelarek, Sheridan Mouwad, Anna Krjatian, Cloe Fournier, Angela French, Laura Fishwick, Sanna Lundstrom and last, but by no means least, the 'token' boy, Sean Marcs, who proved himself to be anything but (token, that is). Let's not underestimate the courage and resolve still likely required, even in the 21C, to forego footy, in favour of flaunting it, on the floor.
Western Sydney Dance Action and Riverside Theatres present
This Way Up
youMove
Venue: Lennox Theatre | Riverside Theatres
Dates: 6th May - 9th May 2009 @ 8pm
Matinee: Saturday 9th May @ 2pm
