There was a younger crowd at this experimental event, not surprisingly, since the billing boasted a combined dance and music venture with Expressions Dance and the Aboriginal Centre of the Performing Arts joining forces with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Finding an orchestral muso who likes the dark confinement of the pit, complying with a conductor’s signals to quicken this or pull back that without ever seeing the ballet or opera they are accompanying, is rare. Refreshingly, for the musicians, the dancers and everyone in attendance the orchestra was an equal on-stage artistic partner.
With an audience primed for a collaborative initiative, the QSO seemed to have shot themselves in the foot by presenting an overly long, purely orchestral introductory segment. Conductor Johannes Fritzsch commanded a polite yet dull take of selections from Beethoven’s Prometheus Overture. A sparkier rendering of Stravinsky’s Fireworks followed; even so, the QSO were in the unenviable but easily‐avoidable time‐filling shoes of the cover band. With glazed eyes and resistant ears, the audience tolerated rather than engaged with Beethoven. This wasn’t the time or place for such an inexplicably extended intro and a giant question mark loomed large.
At last, the stage was set with a wooden table and chairs. The troupe of ACPA’s 16 gifted dancers clad in silk and satin trimmed with green flummery from a magical forest slouched around the table, looking like exotic guests at a Bacchanalian feast. As the orchestra launched into Stravinsky’s taxing Firebird Suite the concert hall’s assembly breathed a collective sigh of relief. Beguiled, choreographed by Penny Mullen, had begun.
Stravinsky’s classic is rhythmically complex with consistently shifting metres and notoriously taxing for dancers. Mullen’s approach was strategic. There were dazzling solos, duos and choruses to particular segments. Mullen rotated her dancers so that they had shorter choreographed passages to master. It’s a simple plot. A young woman breaks up a marriage for social advancement only to meet someone she falls deeply in love with. Then, she is torn between ambition and romantic love. The performance dovetailed rewardingly with Stravinsky’s vibrant score, convincingly voiced by a motivated orchestra.
Natalie Weir’s exciting, idiosyncratic moves set to Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite met the challenge of the multiple ways in which the intriguing heroine Carmen can be interpreted, by presenting three smouldering incarnations, each represented by a different dancer. The costumed look was stunning and the dance brilliantly executed; startling choreography, often revolving around a red couch shaped as lips, flattered the concert hall’s bare stage extension. Male dancers were cast as Don Jose, the Toreador and as Fate.
Overall, this collaboration, pioneered by Richard Wenn, the QSO’s Director of Artistic Planning in discussion with choreographer Natalie Weir, turned out to be an unexpected triumph and with judicious filleting is eminently worthy of another airing soon.
Towards The Flame
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Johannes Fritzsch
Dancers: Aboriginal Centre for Performing Arts, choreographed by Penny Mullen
Dancers: Expressions Dance Company, choreographed by Natalie Weir
Beethoven – Prometheus: Overture
Stravinsky – Fireworks
Stravinsky – Firebird Suite (1919 version) – ACPA
Shchedrin – Carmen Suite – Expressions Dance Company
Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre
17 November
