The annual Ballet at the Quarry season has become a much-anticipated date in Perth’s dance calendar. What could be nicer than to spend a balmy summer evening picnicking with other dance aficionados, comfortably seated on real chairs and watching some of the best dancers around strut their stuff?
In this, the 20th Ballet at the Quarry season, the West Australian Ballet did us proud on all levels, as usual. The picnic banquet, complete with delicious wines, satisfied the outer human, while the soul was alternately stimulated and soothed by the onstage offerings. The charming environment brought the two together in a very satisfying way. The triple bill, composed of two newer works and one that has become a yardstick in the international repertoire, was selected by the company’s former Artistic Director, Ivan Cavallari, but the season was the first under the new director, Aurelian Scannella.
The first offering, Jubilaté, was originally created for the opening of the new WA Ballet Centre last year. The work of company member Daniel Roberts, it demonstrates the depth of talent within the ensemble. A company needs to produce its own choreographers if it is to develop a distinct identity, and WAB has found ideal material in Daniel Roberts. Holder of a double diploma – one in dance, one in choreography – from the Australian Ballet School, Roberts is a man to watch, if this piece is any guide. Set to Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D Minor, the choreography, like the music, is witty and entertaining with a deep underscoring of respect and serious intent. Holly Boyton’s colourful costumes provide a visual comment on the choreography, being a delightful blend of classical tunics and tutus with a jester’s motley.
In the first movement, Allegro, we are treated to choreographic in-gags galore. Roberts references all the tropes of the classical repertoire and quotes directly from the well-loved war horses, especially the Petipa ballets. What’s more, there are fluffed lifts and mimetic offerings that had us in stitches, yet the work never descends into slapstick. Rather, it comments on the joys and pitfalls of dancing for a living.
The second movement, Romanze, takes the work in a more serious direction. Having shown us how easy it is to send-up the overly familiar, Roberts in this movement shows us what he can do with the old chestnuts to make them fresh and contemporary. Like Glen Tetley, whose Voluntaries is presented later in the program, Roberts has a talent for blending the classical and the modern and coming up with something that is new and beautiful.
In Jubilaté’s third movement, Allegro Assai, we are back in send-up country, but this time with a joyful integrity that pulls the tone of the first two movements into a wonderful, bouncing whole. Keep an eye on Roberts. If WAB nurtures him carefully, he may well become the company’s best choreographer since Barry Moreland, and who knows where he might go from there?
The second work of the evening, Yes, I’ll move for you was also by an Australian choreographer, Cass Mortimer Eipper. Like Roberts, Eipper has shown great promise, having won several awards, including a major prize at the 2011 Rome International Choreography Competition. Yes, I’ll move for you is notable for its use of the distinctive music of the band Beirut. It examines relationships within a small community. Beautifully performed, it was, perhaps, rather too short to stand out from the other two works on the program. Furthermore, it was so similar to the third item that it almost seemed to merge with it, despite the intervening interval.
That third item was Voluntaries, one of the best-known works of the late Glen Tetley. Intended as a tribute to John Cranko, it does indeed recall the works of that great master while nevertheless showing originality and emotion that are Tetley’s own. It is highly thought of and is in the repertoire of several companies world-wide.
However, it was not clever programming to place this work with the other two comprising this triple bill. As my companion remarked, no one ever sets a work to a Poulenc score without having it performed in white all-overs, and since the first ballet’s costumes were white with patches of colour, and the second also featured white all-overs, we had already seen enough white costumes to last us a year. Voluntaries is a beautiful work, one that deserves to be set apart by being presented with contrasting pieces. Furthermore, its serene understatement tells us that it would make a better curtain raiser than a closing item.
No doubt the selection of three works that featured the ensemble rather than soloists was deliberate, but this choice merely served as another blow against the program’s memorability. I will remember Jubilaté: the rest fades into a blur of lots of people in white all-overs. Even so, I have given the evening four stars. A fine dance company in such a wonderful setting with superb sound and lighting more than makes up for any shortfalls in the programming.
Kudos, as usual, to Jon Buswell for the beautifully-lit production and to the ballet masters, the repetiteuse and the many behind-the-scenes- workers for their parts in bringing us this year’s Ballet at the Quarry.
Rating: Four stars
The West Australian Ballet presents
Ballet at the Quarry
Artistic Director: Aurelian Scannella
Choreography: Glen Tetley, Cass Mortimer Eipper, Daniel Roberts
Costumes: Rouben Ter-Arutunian, Holly Boyton
Lighting: John Buswell
The Quarry Amphitheatre, Perth
8 February-2 March
Perth Festival 2013
www.perthfestival.com.au
8 February – 2 March
