STRUT Dance presented the world premiere of Manifest, a new work by the Belgian world-leading choreography superstar Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, as part of the Perth Moves program for Perth Festival 2025.
In a huge coup for Western Australia, Cherkaoui has created a work inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s ideas about non-violent resistance against discrimination and injustice. Manifest was billed as a ‘performance for peace’. It was an Australian exclusive, and the first time Cherkaoui has ever made work in this country.
With a career spanning 25 years and over 50 choreographic pieces, Charkaoui’s work can be seen right across the world – on Broadway, in Hollywood blockbusters and on some of the world’s most prestigious stages. He has worked with his acclaimed company Eastman in Belgium and the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, making video clips for Beyoncé, and choreographing Madonna’s most recent world tour and, perhaps most notably for Australian audiences, the Jagged Little Pill musical.
Recognised for his global sensibility and genre diversity, Charkaoui’s innovative and boundary pushing approach has seen him win many awards.
Manifest is a powerful work and the STRUT Dance ensemble lived up to its reputation as WA’s leading contemporary choreographic centre, with every performer giving strong and wonderfully executed displays of their immense and diverse talent and training. However, the space in which this otherwise compelling and dynamic feat was performed was distracting and diluted its impact.
Backed up against the heritage landmark GPO building, now an H&M, the global brand’s logos both above and flanking either side of the stage were so bright and overpowering that it was almost ironic set against the message of the piece.
While activating Forrest Place is a wonderful idea, there are three other sides to the public square, the usage of which would have put the focus on the dancers and message instead of a façade. Dance has the ability to take audiences to other worlds, but here we were cemented within the confines of not only this city, but this exact space.
Compounding this was the harsh and static lighting state used throughout. Moreover, the secondary stage holding the two grand pianos and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist, was so far removed from the main performance space that the audience would have been forgiven for thinking that simple tracks were being pumped through the speakers and not played live. The technicality and beauty of these musicians demanded greater respect and thought in regard to their positioning in order to properly fuse the magic of music and dance.
Manifest featured 12 local dancers supported by a ‘silent choir’ of 50 non-dance trained, community members on stage each night. The volunteers delivered power in numbers and supported the dancers, making the piece appear substantially ‘fuller’. Also being cleverly used to manipulate set pieces, the mass of bodies perfectly highlighted Cherkaoui’s idea of showing up for one another and inviting the audience to look at situations through the eyes of other people – the clarity of our shared humanity.
The industrial fencing as stage furnishing and climbing frames enabled the audience to interpret whether the dancers en masse were portraying those in jail, in immigration centres or as protesters, forcing spectators to think about how we stand up for injustice and find peace with each other.
Local Noongar artist Ian Wilkes’ vocals were mesmerising and made even more poignant and personal when he finally appeared on the main stage. The commonsense behind lines like “why celebrate, discriminate, when we can change a date?”, “why did you take the children away, let them play” and “we shout because our voices are not being heard” was intense, especially in the open cityscape of Forrest Place with the natural noise of the big smoke and its inhabitants featuring as unwitting characters.
While the metaphorical shout could have been much louder, with a substantial amount more festival atmosphere, magic and thought going into turning Forrest Place into a central hub, STRUT Dance has proved its position on the Perth ladder of contemporary dance and hopefully engaged a plethora of new ingenues by performing Manifest in this space.
Read: Ballet review: Nijinsky, Regent Theatre
Perth Festival 2025 seems to have fewer public offerings compared with previous festivals and, while this would not have attracted the masses, mostly the dance-focused, it was a wonderful start to the Perth Moves season and refreshing to see new audiences being actively attracted to take part in such an important festival.
Perth Moves: Manifest presented by STRUT Dance
Choreographer and additional music: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
Assistant choreographer: Nick Coutsier, Tara Jade Samaya
Creative collaborator: Ian (Moopa) Wilkes
Composer: Alexandre Dai Castaing
Costume design: Nicole Marrington
Stage design and production: Mark Haslam
Pianists: Kyoko Ichihashi, Emily Green-Armytage
Cast: Olivia Adams, Dean Riley Smith, Tamara Eve Bouman, David Kila Biondi-Odo, Giorgia Schijf, Kai Taberner, Karlia Cook, Otto Pye, Sophie Sibbons, Luther Wilson, Surekha Krishnan, Ethan Thomas
Perth Moves: Manifest was performed 18-20 February at Forrest Place, Perth as part of Perth Festival.
