Frontera



https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/frontera/


DANCE

SYDNEY FESTIVAL : FRONTERA @ CARRIAGEWORKS

 
This work as part of the 2020 Sydney Festival is very strong and powerful with incredibly fearless , explosively energetic performances by the dancers.
FRONTERA is the latest in a series of socially engaged, cutting edge, large-scale works created by avant garde Canadian choreographer Dana Gingras and her company Animals of Distinction. Gingras and her ten dancers ask: what space remains for the unruly, ungovernable body in this world of constant surveillance, monitoring and artificial borders .What is freedom ? The dancers are at times refugees trying to escape .
The dancers are in styled ‘casual’ street clothes – mostly of black and white but then for one section some wear red – and sports shoes . At times they writhe sculpturally as a group , or form a rocklike mass, at other times there are individual phrases of trapped movement
repeated .Ordinary everyday movements are included ( walks , runs ) as well as hurtling death defying jumps , leaps and turns. At various points there are tentative , robotic like arm movements as if the dancers are trying to communicate but can’t. At on point a woman breaks free , with straight yet sinuous arms – she is both part of the ensemble yet separate .In another section the ensemble try to cross a border and there are unusual lifts , and the team work together , lifting and passing each other along.
Frontera also features live music by Canadian post-rockers Fly Pan Am on guitars, drums and percussion that was painfully loud, the pounding , throbbing sound reverberating at times right through you .Some people sat with hands over their ears for most of the performance . Field recordings by Dave Bryant (of Godspeed You! Black Emperor) were also included .
The lighting by United Visual Artists was also a crucial element of the show. The lighting – a huge bank of spotlights – creates a cell like bar effect that restrains the dancers – can they break through /jump across ? At other times it is like a menacing ,sweeping spotlight that the dancers have to avoid being seen by – the light seeking the huddled ‘dead’ dancers on the floor.
There are some fabulous visual moments, some extraordinary quieter moments and mini solos and duets , all performed brilliantly , but the relentless hammering of the audio and visuals made this work rather oppressive and overwhelming .
Running time roughly 75 minutes
FRONTERA is playing aa part of the Sydney Festival being tween the 8th and 12th January 2020.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Traffic Jam Galleries Rebecca Pierce The Least Possible Resistance and Katherine Wood Finding Freedom

Image
  REBECCA PIERCE : THE LEAST POSSIBLE RESISTANCE AND KATHERINE WOOD : FINDING FREEDOM @ TRAFFIC JAM GALLERIES Untamed Hearts Two contrasting – or are they? – exciting, intense, multi layered and structured exhibitions are currently showing at the Traffic Jam Galleries .   Rebecca Pierce’s at times softly subtle, questioning and haunting works are joined by her thickly layered ,brightly coloured explosive works . Katherine Wood’s exhibition is full of stormy, tempestuous skies, a dynamic horizon line and questions life and nature.Some of the works have tiny people and trees included . For both exhibitions we see the artist at work in their studio and some of the artworks both in close up and on display of the works on elegant walls of a home.   The Least Possible Resistance exhibition by Rebecca Pierce is a vigorous, pulsating presentation .The works shown    glow and sometimes are abstract, crisp and clean with their fetching shapes .Or perhaps softer , more mut...
Read more

Sydney Dance in Momenta

  SYDNEY DANCE MOMENTA   MAY/JUNE 2024   Freshly returned from an international tour, Sydney Dance is in magnificent sparkling form. Momenta grabs and dazzles you from the start.   It is about breath and life, explores time and space and how human emotions are forged and disrupted by time. The work integrates with the subliminal via powerful intensity and a dramatic look. Momenta opens with the dancers like ghostly sculptures and then uses mechanical arm movements in the first few scenes. Bonacheala’ s dynamic,extremely demanding choreography is sweeping , with many levels and fluid – at times the dancers sit like sculptures , at others they slip , ripple , slide and   glide , crawl on all fours , contrasted with high ,difficult lifts , a creamy stretched ‘ line’   and lots of slinky floorwork and spiky motions . Their refined grace, flexibility,mastery of technique and powerful stamina are always visible. The ensemble dancing is tremendous and we...
Read more

PINCHGUT OPERA'S PLEASURES OF VERSAILLES

Image
  ‘ Let all yield to the sweet enchantments of my harmonies “ Pinchgut have brought us another luscious, elegant, luxuriously captivating , musically superb production. We are to imagine we are at the court of Louis XIV The Sun King , attending a performance in his private apartments , light entertainment after an arduous day at his Court . It has been updated to now to a degree - the cast is dressed in fashions sort of 1920’s-1940’s   . Designed by Melanie Liertz , the set  includes a topiary-set and raised fake plastic grass stage, a giving the impression of a broad terrace, some cushions , rugs etc , a high tea trolley and a changing background composed of a trellised arch to which it overlooks .We we have projections of the garden , fountain , birds , butterflies ,  mirrors and the famous portrait of Louis among other things . Directed by Shannon Burns, and with Artistic Director Erin Helyard leading the Orchestra of the Antipodes , the performance begins with a ...
Read more