Sydney Reviews

Left – Sylvie Guillem & Emanuela Montanari (Here and After). Photo – Carl Fox. Cover – Sylvie Guillem (Techne). Photo – Bill Cooper

Currently showing in the drama theatre of the Sydney Opera House and starring Sylvie Guillem, Life In Progress presents a program of four separate contemporary dance pieces which take us to strange and unexpected places. With choreography by Akram Khan, Russell Maliphant, William Forsythe and Mats Ek, the mood created over the course of the evening is other worldly, primordial and futuristic at the same time. The musical accompaniment of each of the pieces – whilst being diverse and unconnected and ranging from heavy breathing, to yodelling, to a live band on stage and a Beethoven piano sonata – helps to unify the four dances and create the sense of 'other worldliness'. The choice of 'streetwear' for costumes brings the show into the here and now.

The first piece of the evening – Akram Khan's Techne – features Guillem dancing solo in the space with nothing but a sparse looking tree on stage and accompanied by three dimly lit musicians – the resulting effect is quite eery. Guillem's dancing is remarkably graceful and vibrant and her sinewy limbs seem not to be affected by gravity. Starting out at a crouch and scuttling around like a bug looking for food, Guillem unfurls her limbs to demonstrate the full flight of beauty, grace and magnetism for which she is known. The dancer scratches her way into existence from the ground up and evolves into a magnificent creature – the dance ends in a walk.

Brigel Gjoka and Riley Watts execute the second piece of the evening – Forsythe's Duo – with precision and energy. The quirky, jerky and at times painful looking choreography is initially performed without musical unaccompaniment which gives the feeling of a rehearsal rather than a performance and the introduction of the sparse score half way through heightens the sense of isolaton and indecision. The mood created is that of a silent conversation that never really has the chance to find its voice – sentences begun yet not finished – thoughts interrupted and not developed. Not an elegant or beautiful work but deeply engaging nevertheless.

Guillem teams up next with Emanuela Montanari to perform Maliphant's Here and After, a work combining elegance and angularity and set to one of the strangest pieces of music that I have heard. The lighting is dark and dappled and the use of colour combined with the unusual scoring – heavy breathing and eventually yodeling – takes the audience to another dimension. Montanari's dancing is impeccably stylish but unfortunately cast in the shadow of Guillem whose elegant, tall stature and floating limbs completely divert and grasp one's attention.

The final piece of the evening was Bye – a solo created for Guillem by choreographer Mats Ek, for Sadlers Wells' 2011 triple bill '6000 Miles Away'. The ballet combines the use of video to engage the audience with clever visual tricks and the introduction of other characters leave one guessing. The performance was sensitive and reflective and a fitting ending to this strange but tasteful evening of movement, music, lighting and design.


Sydney Opera House presents
Life in Progress
Sylvie Guillem

Venue: Drama Theatre | Sydney Opera House NSW
Dates: 19 – 25 August 2015
Tickets: From $79
Bookings: 02 9250 7777 | www.sydneyoperahouse.com