The sold-out crowd was gathered under the blazing sun, which was setting slowly behind trees and train lines, when the air-horn sounded. The locals scattered as various articles of clothing – shoes, pants, shirts, and appliances; bikes, skateboards, portable speakers – were laid haphazardly on the concrete.
Thus began Concrete + Bone Sessions.
Creeping out onto the man-made rock, the performers quickly got used to their environment, after initially acting like 23rd century monkeys discovering an ancient, post-apocalyptic structure.
Taking up the shabby clothes, the nine performers soon whipped up the crowd with fantastic displays of parkour, breakdancing, BMX trick-riding and skateboarding. Among gasps from the crowd and the physical derring-do, a primal narrative unfolded around the silent performers, helped along by stunning soundscapes emitted from a massive sound system, as well as portable speakers lashed to the performers’ waists. No specific tale was told; the only theme appeared to be the lust for danger, presented by characters both human and metal, strangely at home on the concrete waves.
Individuals came to the fore, displaying their specialties or playing chicken with each other before being enveloped, back into the fold, then running as a pack, using feet, skateboards and BMXs to stunning effect.
Undulating like the tides, the show’s pace and rhythm rose and fell, peaked then crashed, lived and died, only to be reborn again.
The performers were uniformly excellent – even the very occasional fall looked natural. At ease with their environment, as well as looking new to and learning from it, they flowed in and around and over each other, as Bruce Lee would say, ‘like water’.
The music, composed by Bob Scott, fluctuated between industrial and ambient, as much a part of the show as the performers, with such diverse contributors as Inja Lilhestrom, Bree Van Reyk and Hugh Coffey.
The setting, the Dulwich Hill Skate Park, proved an excellent venue. Tucked away between roads and trains in the middle of a growing mega-city, one can imagine shows like this becoming more and more common.
Attracting people from all walks of life, including families, kids, the young and hip, The Concrete + Bone Sessions gives us a glimpse into the future of urban performance art. A mix of man, machine and hardened environment, it feels like a show from the not-too-distant future, featuring a soundtrack and children born of an apoca-hip-stic nightmare, integrating the concrete with their bones.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Concrete + Bone Sessions
Branch Nebula
Produced by Performing Lines
Jack Shanahan Reserve (Dulwich Hill Skate Park)
9 – 19 January
Sydney Festival 2013
www.sydneyfestival.org.au
5 – 27 January
