Orb

Orb comprises two new works: Full Moon, choreographed by Chen Tsung-Iung; and Ocho, choreographed by Sydney Dance Company's artistic director, Rafael Bonachela.

If, as I was, you are told, before seeing it, nothing of what either work represents, you'll be hard pressed to discern it, though minor clues throughout the first might get you part of the way.  This is perhaps a common point of difference between classical and contemporary dance: that very often what contemporary dance expresses is so abstract as to appear meaningless.  Evidently both of these works expressed very definite meaning: in Full Moon, arising fomr that orb's waxing and waning; and, in Ocho (Spanish for "eight"), arising from the individual virtuosities of its eight performers.

Both works are enormously energetic; both are abstract and set to suitably abstract music; and, in both, the majority of each individual's dance is apparently solo, though in fact it must have been very highly coordinated with the others' dances.

From its most beautiful opening moments, Full Moon employs a great variety of of circular movements, including moves from streetdance and stunning body rolls.  Its highly individual dances, appearing at first to be at odds with one another, eventually resolve into increasingly unison dance with a suggestion of ritualism.  Ocho, by contrast, largely employs abrupt, snapping moves that might strike you as an expression of the most powerful Klingon poetry through controlled robot-industrial chaos.  It is perfectly set to music of the same sentiment that ends, surprisingly, on an Aboriginal Australian melody.  Its set design was particularly striking.

The 16 dancers — eight in each work — performed faultlessly.  Their strength, balance, and timing were nothing less than superb; their complex spatial coordination with one another in Full Moon they could evidently have repeated much of equally faultlessly with eyes closed; and the the demands upon them of Ocho in particular were scarcely credible.  The entire troupe has set a high standard of dance athleticism that will be difficult to exceed.

John P. Harvey

Photographer: Pedro Greig