Symphony, by Sydney-based troupe Legs on the Wall and commissioned by Northern Rivers Performing Arts (NORPA), is a 60-minute dance performance divided into four parts.
It has the potential to be a 5-star performance. It features quality dance, creativity, and enough soul to achieve great success but it needs more cohesion between all the elements at play.
The show starts with a bare stage. The four dancers then use rectangular cardboard boxes – similar to those used when moving house – to create and modify their surroundings. First the boxes are set in rows, then piled up together at the back and then divided in three different piles across the stage. If those props are not put together with precision, the result is flimsy – an apt metaphor for the show as a whole.
As the guitar ebbs and flows
through the show’s four segments, the audience is treated to several
solo dances, including an awe-inspiring contortion reminiscent of a
circus act. The last part of the performance leaves the cardboxes behind and introduces the use of elastics to the dance, giving it a more acrobatic edge but limiting the performances to the centre of the stage.
Having four 15-minute sections made the performance easily digestible and entertaining. The use of props to constantly re-invent the space was highly creative and offered a different visual experience depending on the audience members’ position in the auditorium. The use of lighting to convert the props into defined stage elements was Spartan but effective.
Kudos to designer Alice Abridge, head rigger Jon Blake, Matt Cox in lighting and Andrew Wholley on video for getting the balance right between the technical elements on stage.
The unique mix of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ music for the production, the 7th Symphony arranged for electric guitar and performed by Stefan Gregory, was strong enough to be the cornerstone of the show and was played with soul and passion.
The dancing was intuitive, with enough elements of acrobatics to be more than pure dance, but well short of a circus performance.
By giving the artistic concept so much flexibility, director Patrick Nolan risks ending up with wobbly parts and no wholesome final product. Despite the charisma and skill of the dancers (special mention to Amy McPherson and Rhiannon Spratling), the first ever performance of Symphony fell just short of solid, mainly due to the distraction of so many stage transformations happening at the same time as the dance.
Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5
Legs on the Wall present
Symphony
Director: Patrick Nolan
Composer: Stefan Gregory
Designer: Alice Babidge
Performers: Matt Cornell, Amy McPherson, Rhiannon Spratling and Joshua Thompson
Lismore City Hall, Lismore
16 – 17 November
