Kunstkamer

Kunstkamer is a theatrically enthralling, unprecedented leap by the Australian Ballet into contemporary dance.  Artistic director David Hallberg wooed its four choreographers to work here with his forty AB dancers and stage Kunstkamer for the first time since its premiere at the Nederland Dance Theatre.

The classical, walled set design with its high windows and doors draws on the antique Cabinet of Curiosities in which enthusiasts marvelled at objects of science, botany and arts.  Here the doors open to sharply illuminate dancers rushing to the stage for solos, pas de deux and mesmerizing mass choreography.   

Hallberg himself is charismatic dancing as the ghostlike keeper, long-limbed with staccato quirks and utterances, open-mouthed in delight or horror, all comedy and pathos.  It’s like an historic world of cartoons and Chaplin, with an Expressionist, film noir aesthetic, especially as the walls shift into hauntingly lit streetscapes.  And Adam Elmes (from the Corps de Ballet) is masterful as Hallburg’s white-faced young cohort.  

But this dance is less about characters and relationships, and more about how we each deal with the glories and shocks of the world, the existential challenge of what next comes through the door.  It’s amazing that such a full-length abstract epic can hold a ballet audience totally in awe, surprise, laughter and tenderness.

The reason is the energy and magically unified choreography of Paul Lightfoot, artistic director of the NDT, his frequent collaborator Sol León, and Crystal Pite and Marcel Goecke. And the fine theatre the AB dancers make out of their quicksilver, ever-shifting choreography, with delicious idiosyncratic gestures from a vulnerable, crazed humanity.  Benedicte Bernet, Lucien Xu, Callum Linnane, Brett Chynoweth and Amy Harris all shine in featured roles.

Our scratch for what it all means is so often distracted by startling choreography, especially Paul Lightfoot’s waves of gestures through the massed dancers, like falling dominoes, a Mexican Wave of coiled arms, an amoeba of peoples unfurling.

And further keeping us in the moment is such an eclectic, emotional score drawing on Beethoven and Britten, Janis Joplin , Arvo Part, Henry Purcell, Olafur Arnalds and more, all beautifully served the Opera Australia Orchestra and conductor Nicolette Fraillon.

Sure, there are lags and fragmented scenes towards the end, but the setting, lighting and evocative period costume designs all create the perfect world for a profound experience.

Martin Portus

Photographer: Daniel Boud