THREE 2.0

Forget State of Origin football – Queensland’s athletic staying power was on display last night at Brisbane Powerhouse – as the Australian Dance Collective’s (ADC’s) group of six dancers took to the stage for their opening night of just six performances. The three pieces total just under two hours of constant movement and energy – a total triumph of athleticism. There is satisfying symmetry in this meticulous work, with an overall structure of three independent pieces. Whereas 2021’s THREE 1.0 was definitely three individual performances, the strength of THREE 2.0 is that all the pieces seem to overlap and intersect thematically and musically to build to an exhilarating finale and a more gratifying whole. The ADC company sextet – Chase Clegg-Robinson, Tyrel Dulvarie, Harrison Elliott, Lonii Garnons-Williams, Lilly King and Jack Lister – represent a cross-section of trained talent from Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia. They are all fascinating artists in their own right, and their discipline, versatility and athleticism is really something to see. 

Image: Limbic

In combination with new musical compositions, streetwise costumes, and stunningly effective lighting designs by some of our most creative Brisbane-based practitioners, THREE 2.0 is a must-see show for anyone interested in witnessing collaborative art at its best. All the choreography is credited as being in conjunction with the ADC dancers, and that feeling of creative cooperation permeates and is enmeshed in the overall mood and energy of the total production. After several delays and rescheduling due to flooding on Brisbane’s South Bank, I can’t help but feel that the shift to the Brisbane Powerhouse was meant to be: this venue’s concrete, steel and graffiti are the perfect home for this astute and confident performance. The foyer space also allowed for a display of a separate digital performance, adding to the feeling that this group knows its audience and its own raison d’être.

The first piece, Limbic, choreographed by Cass Mortimer Eipper, is a pulsating work inspired by the processing of the sensory nervous system. It is evoked by block colour costumes by Zoe Griffiths, lighting by Ben Hughes and associate Christine Felmingham, and stunning music by Alyxandra Dennison that feels like a rusty radio dial, constantly searching for its home station.

Image: Limbic

Composer Anna Whitaker picks up the metallic theme and runs with it in the next piece, Something There is That Doesn’t Love a Wall, which takes the electrobeats further as choreographer, Kate Harman, explores the walls we build to protect ourselves in human life. The protective bubble is reflected in the lighting, once again by Hughes and Felmingham. Here the streetwise costume designs by Griffiths remind us that underneath every ordinary person on the street is a thriving psychological puzzle. The dance moves match this with human chains and piles of bodies more akin to an acrobat’s performance.

Image: Something There is That Doesn’t Love a Wall,

The Incandescent Dark builds on the energy of the previous pieces, taking the dancers into an even more poetic psychological space to explore a photographic effect with their bodies. Textile designer, Rosa Hirakata adds a special touch to this performance with splashes of colour that work with the lighting to add tiny fireworks that break the darkness. Composer Luke Smiles has created a gloriously earthy electro soundtrack for the dancers to work to, with heartbeats and pulses brought to life by choreographer Gabrielle Nankivell as she produces a picture, using the collective of dancers, the lighting and the music to explore French writer and philosopher, Roland Barthes’s concept of the ‘punctum’ of a photograph – the split second that a photograph speaks to so many emotions and senses all at once.

Image: The Incandescent Dark

The inspirations for the three pieces – the physical and psychological workings of the human body, a Robert Frost poem, and Barnes’s theories – serve as a rich reminder of the fabulous intersections of unconscious dream, sharp intellect and poetic reality that dance is capable of expressing so wonderfully.

Find out more: https://brisbanepowerhouse.org/whats-on/event/three

Beth Keehn

Photographer: David Kelly