4Seasons presented by Expressions Dance Company, City Contemporary Dance Company and Queensland Performing Arts Centre.
4Seasons is a triumphant triple bill of contemporary dance works centered around the theme of seasons, presented by Brisbane dance pillar Expressions Dance Company together with Hong Kong’s City Contemporary Dance Company. It marks the second of EDC’s collaborations across their five year long Chinese Australian Dance Project – an initiative to start a cross-cultural conversation between East and the facsimile of the West within the Asia-Pacific.
The program begins with Summer, a piece created by Sydney-based choreographer Kristina Chan for the CCDC dancers with a strong environmental message. Summer explores themes centered around the reality of climate change such as the chilling repercussions of apathy, shifting weather patterns, the individual going against the grain society and the destitution of a post-apocalyptic landscape. Summer opens with the dancers positioned on stage in a costume that could be seen as a streamlined representation of post-apocalyptic attire – sleek black tops and khaki pants, silhouetted against a backdrop of billowy amber parachute-like material. As the industrial electronica track begins the dancers shift from formation to formation through languid choreography and deft partnering. Each of the elements at play fuse together to express various the concepts presented; something as simple as a wisp of smoke emitting from the parachute-fabric as it descends instils a sense of doom. Performed with grace and technical precision by the CCDC dancers the overall effect is hypnotic and haunting.
Day After Day choreographed by Assistant Artistic Director of CCDC Dominic Wong on the EDC dancers explores change across seasons in a high-tech bustling metropolis. It’s fast-paced and energetic, with a futuristic cyberpunk aesthetic – much like Hong Kong itself. Elements of street dance such as popping and locking are fused with contemporary technique to create arresting images that wouldn’t look out of place in a sci-fi movie. The challenging, acrobatic choreography is executed with fearless energy by the EDC dancers, who defy time gravity in moments of suspended time as they leap through the air.
The final work is EDC artistic director and award-winning choreographer Natalie Weir’s 4Seasons, performed by the CCDC and EDC dancers together to Max Richter’s rearrangement of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. 4Seasons explores relationships across the various life stages of life, from the spring of youth to the winter of old age. 4Seasons opens with all of the dancers on stage for the start of spring movement, using simple port de bras movements to make patterns that intimate flowers blooming. It transitions between ensemble work and duos comprising of one dancer from EDC and the other CCDC, representing couples at various life stages.
4Seasons showcases all of Natalie Weir’s trademarks such as fluid lines and creative partnering, and also reveals a flair for inventive, visually striking formations that only a large group of dancers can facilitate. Canons, spirals, floorwork that intimates the falling of leaves in Autumn – it’s apparent the possibilities presented by a group of this size are explored with relish. A sense of the bittersweet and the poignant – another feature common to many of Natalie Weir’s works – is as present in 4Seasons as ever; the initially exuberant spring and summer couples make a stilted reprise in autumn that tugs at the heartstrings.
4Seasons is an unforgettable evening of stunning dance pieces that will remain with you long after show’s conclusion. On opening night the multicultural audience was brought to their feet in a resounding standing ovation, showing that art presented here in the form of dance transcends cultural barriers.
Rating: 5 stars ★★★★★
4Seasons
Presented by Expressions Dance Company and City Contemporary Dance Company
Choreography: Kristina Chan, Dominic Wong, Natalie Weir
Lighting Design: Lawnmanray
Stage Visual and Costume Design: Cindy Ho Pui-shan
Sound Design: Anthony Yeung
14 – 22 June 2018
Playhouse, QPAC
