Humans 2.0 review | Arts Centre Melbourne

If 2017's Humans explored the concept of what it means to be human, then Humans 2.0 smashes straight through it. This new show from Circa is a moving study of connection through circus.  Directed by Yaron Lifschitz, it's an unforgettable evening of skill, sweat, and spirit as we delve into the challenges of being human.

From the very beginning, the cast of eleven command total control of the space - and us. Every second feels earned, as they throw themselves into the air and work in perfect sync to execute acrobatic feats that demand absolute commitment to one another. You see the sweat dripping off their bodies, watch their chests rise and fall with heavy breathing, and marvel at the muscular, sinewy frames that are in constant motion.

Cliffhanger review

Writer Holly Childs and choreographer Angela Goh have spent the last five years examining the idea of a cliffhanger, both in its literal sense as well as its storytelling device that keeps people hooked in and wanting more. Cliffhanger is the culmination of that collaboration and while the commitment is there, the result is a mixed bag of impact and exploration.

We are provided with a copy of the script to the production, so we know ahead of time Goh's lines. In some ways, this plays with the concept of the cliffhanger, of knowing what's going to come but not knowing how it's going to be delivered or when exactly.

Triptych review

Anyone who has witnessed a Phillip Adams dance work knows to expect the unexpected. Adams has a knack for creating daring and disruptive pieces that explore themes around sexuality in its rawest form. His newest work Triptych, takes inspiration from Francis Bacon’s 1970 triptych painting, Triptych, in which Bacon used distortion and fragmentation to call attention to his own ideas around love, sex and religion.

In the first of three parts, four dancers (Harrison Hall, Samuel Harnett-Welk, Benjamin Hurley and Oliver Savariego) dressed in simple yet stunning Toni Maticevski designs, spend forty minutes writhing and convulsing on a circular pink carpet to a highly piercing and penetrating score by David Chisholm and Duane Morrison. While one pair appears to have more intimate and vulnerable interactions, the other pair is more aggressive and brutal. The two pairs circle each other, and at times make physical contact with each other, indicating how civility and animal instincts can easily be interchanged, something that Bacon depicted with his art. There are times where you wonder if Adams has choreographed this or if the dancers have completely given themselves over to these urges and being spellbound by the stirring composition. It's a rare experience to watch a performance and feel such intensity permeate throughout the room and be utterly transfixed by what is unfolding.

Here We Are Amongst You review

I have not felt such sense of warmth and being cared for while watching a show than I have in the world premiere of Rawcus' Here We Are Amongst You. The Rawcus Ensemble began creating this in December 2019, looking into ideas around belonging, togetherness and being present in the moment, which is of particular significance now after the last few years, which for Melbournians has included a few hundred days of lockdown.

After a genuinely caring welcome by one of the cast, they begin walking through the space. Performed in the round, they enter and exit behind the audience, which makes you feel like not only part of the performance, but also part of this group. The smiles on their faces and the joy that they express as they walk and then begin to jog, run and skip with each other and around the audience is incredibly infectious.

The Honouring review

In his solo work The Honouring, emerging performer Jack Sheppard (Kurtjar people, Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York) combines movement, dialogue and puppetry to explore how a person’s spirit or soul can be prevented from moving on when culture does not recognise it. With some impressive design elements, it is a performance that doesn’t shy away from exposing pain or grief while still retaining an air of hope and peace.

Sheppard shines when he uses his body to tell this story and he throws himself into the powerful choreography. Paired with the history of ritual, it is captivating to see how Sheppard chooses to express the emotions and issues that arise from suicide as a First Nations person.

Cella review

Cella (Latin for cell) is a minimalist dance piece by Narelle Benjamin and Paul White, who use and contort their bodies in intense solo and paired routines to uncover a history that we rarely consider. Cella allows the two dancers to explore the biology of our body along and the stories that it has to share.

The movements performed by Benjamin and White play to their strengths and often create stunning moments in how the body can be manipulated. While the beginning of the piece goes on longer than is necessary, the unison in which the two move their bodies as they writhe around the floor is impressive, evident of much time and effort made in ensuring they are in tune with the music by Huey Benjamin and with each other.

7 Pleasures - Melbourne Festival review

It's interesting how much uncomfortable conversation sex and nudity can create and how people can easily feel confronted by seeing a breast or a penis. So when you're watching a performance art piece in which the dancers are nude for the entire show, it can lead to some awkward moments. However, Mette Ingvarsten is well aware of this fact and in 7 Pleasures she immediately knocks down the obvious issue before the performance has even begun, or before anyone in the audience is given a chance to realise it has begun.

Ingarsten's work explores the pleasure - and the pain - the body can provide and the difficulty in being able to enjoy one's own body when faced with constriction and conflict. The set design for 7 Pleasures is simple and familiar, a living room with a few chairs, a table, coffee table and a pot plant. Its familiarity is what sets you at ease...except for the giant sculpture of naked bodies forming in a back corner.

32 Rue Vandenbranden review - Melbourne Festival

Performed as part of the Melbourne Festival, Peeping Tom return to Australia with 32 Rue Vandenbranden, which  explores the isolation and loneliness that a group of people feel through the company's trademark fusion of dance, physical theatre and music.

The stage design, which is how the Belgian company begins developing a new creation, perfectly encapsulates the emotional state of its inhabitants. High on a mountain-top, underneath an endless sky, sit three rickety caravans. The ground is covered in snow and there is an immediate sense of remoteness and desolation. The emotive sound composition by Juan Carlos Tolosa and Glenn Vervliet strongly adds to the feelings that the characters are experiencing, while mezzo-soprano Eurudike De Beul's musical moments in the show are an aural delight for the audience.