Footnote satisfies
Ann Hunt28/09/2011 10:36:00 a.m.
FOOTNOTE’S latest season of four new works is exciting, innovative, extremely well danced and deserves to be widely seen.
Company members Francis Christeller and Lucy Marinkovich are joined by newcomers Emily Adams, Olivia McGregor and Manu Reynaud who fit well into the mix.
The major work of the evening, body/fight/time is from the tireless Malia Johnston. Choreographically visually satisfying, it also stimulates intellectually. The 50 minute work is a collaboration between Johnston, producer Adrianne Roberts and co-director Emma Willis and has a wonderful score by Eden Mulholland.
John Verryt (set,) Rowan Pierce (AV design,) and Brad Gledhill (lighting design,) make a stunning team. Images are projected onto Verryt’s moveable panels, with the Company dancing in unison or counterpoint in front of them. Three other dancers supplement the company: Mariana Rinaldi, Carl Tolentino and Paul Young. All work as a brilliant ensemble.
The theme is time and the ways in which we fight it. Sometimes highly amusing, it nevertheless has a chilling undercurrent. This is emphasised by the presence of the mesmerising Kilda Northcote, who looks and moves like the dance icon she is. In one striking scene, dressed in a light frock, as Time/Death, masquerading as a summer’s day, she taps each dancer and one by one they leave the stage.
Also by Johnston is the poetically titled, Instances (When We Are Like Horses.) This striking work used the large space beautifully. Very fast with arresting held ‘snapshot’ movement and some dangerous ‘thrown’ lifts, the company gave a highly energised performance, again to Mulholland’s layered music.
The inspiration of Julia Milsom’s Nature of the Beast, (“everyone is somebody’s dog/master,”) though unpleasant, is a strong one. Images of domination and subjection abound. But after an arresting beginning and committed performances by Marinkovich and McGregor, the work does not develop and seems to flounder in the large space. The unsubtle canine noises on Andrew McMillan’s otherwise dynamic score do not help.
Victoria Columbus’s Subsequently Confused’s repetitive, spiralling movement used the floor and space very well and was given an energetic performance by Marinkovich, Reynaud and McGregor to Jody Lloyd’s mesmeric, rhythmic music. Way to go Footnote.







