PPY16 – Revealed
Carriageworks, December 7
Until December 8
★★★☆
Reviewed by Jill Sykes
The title of this program translates as Pre-Professional Year 2016 – Revealed and it spells out the Sydney Dance Company's annual development project for young dancers – one of whom didn't actually perform because he had already been selected to join the SDC as a trainee.
As for the 22 dancers who did: they are an interesting mix of talents, sizes, shapes and looks. What they share are focus, fearlessness and the discipline to perform as an ensemble. Course director Linda Gamblin, supervisor Shane Carroll and a team of teachers and choreographers have done a great job in preparing them for a performing future, starting with this show.
Overall, it is exciting to see the daring and confidence that the dancers bring to choreography made for them, plus an excerpt from Rafael Bonachela's 2 One Another, which they performed extremely well. There is an added degree of exhilaration in watching young dancers tackling such challenges – and meeting them.
Conversely, you can sense the glint in a choreographer's eye when they come across an exceptionally flexible body, a gift for winding long limbs in odd directions, or a particularly sensitive male performer. Short solos for such talents were highlights.
Among the five choreographers represented, Kristina Chan – a notable solo dancer/choreographer – created effectively for the full cast in Pacific, finding creative ways to break up the large ensemble into smaller groups.
Narelle Benjamin created a duet, Pieces of Cella, that caught the ebb and flow of life in us all, however different we may appear outwardly.
Thomas Bradley directed the dancers through an improvisation process to make corporare, giving the audience so little light that we could hardly see the dancers in this fragmented piece.
Zachary Lopez showed promise in thought and movement in his first choreographic piece for public performance, Like a Salmon in the Sahara.