CounterMove

In 2016, Sydney Dance Company will ignite the stage with their incredible two-part program, CounterMove. As a juxtaposition of the works of Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela and Swedish Choreographer Alexander Ekman, CounterMove is a demonstration of how contemporary dance can be many different things.

Lux Tenebris is a 40-minute work created by Bonachela, featuring the full ensemble of dancers, and serves as an artistic interpretation of the idea of light and darkness.

“The ultimate result is a work of dance,” Bonachela explained. “[It’s] an artwork of choreography which has been inspired by the idea of light and darkness and how that makes us feel and how we respond to it, and the memories that we may have of light and darkness.”

As apart of his development process Bonachela collaborated with Sydney composer Nick Wales to come up with a uniquely industrial-like soundscape – a choice made to compliment and contrast with Cacti, the other half of the CounterMove program.

“Cacti has beautiful orchestral music and it has a live string quartet on stage… as much as I love orchestral music, [I decided] I was going to go electronic,” said Bonachela.

“A lot of the textures are quite dark and distorted. I was interested in putting a lot of things that cross each other. So I suppose like a duality of sound,” Nick Wales explained.

“It’s very electronic,” Wales added. “So a lot of it is urban related drum beats. But I also used a lot of field recordings that I’ve made in places like Ethiopia and Korea.”

Alexander Ekman’s Cacti is world-renowned for it’s hilarious and comical approach to contemporary dance. In the piece, the dancers are seemingly trying to escape from invisible prisons and eventually all acquire a cactus.

Lux Tenebris and Cacti are both incredible pieces of contemporary dance and are the perfect counter-movements to one-another.

The Sydney Dance Company are also hosting an exclusive sneak peak of CounterMove as a part of a free Work in Progress event, held at the Roslyn Packer Theatre.

“What the Work in Progress has is a Q&A,” said Bonachela. “Anyone in the audience can ask any question they want to me, to any of the dancers or collaborators and we also have the magic of the theatre.” (NB)

Feb 26–Mar 12. Roslyn Packer Theatre, 22 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay. $45-$89. Tickets & info: roslynpackertheatre.com.au

BY NYSSA BOOTH