DANCE
Melburnians love dance.
LUCY GUERIN INC
/ Dance
37
The Ends of
Things / 2000
Plasticine Park / 2003
Structure and
Sadness / 2006 36
Corridor / 2008
Weather / 2014
Not only is the nation’s classical flagship, The Australian Ballet, based
here, but innovative contemporary dance is widely admired and supported.
Melbourne is home to a slew of experimental choreographers and to
Dancehouse, Australia’s key centre for contemporary dance research and
performance. It is no coincidence that Dance Massive, the contemporary
dance festival and national industry conference held biennially across the
Malthouse Theatre, Arts House and Dancehouse, takes place in Melbourne.
Melbourne Festival has reflected audiences’ passion for dance,
importing some of the world’s favourite companies. The Royal National
Ballet of Spain took part in the inaugural season, and after that the highest
calibre of dance worldwide came to the city: Australian premieres for Paul
Taylor Dance Company and Mats Ek’s Cullberg Ballet in 1989; the National
Ballet of Cuba, first in 1992; Jiří Kylián’s Nederlands Dans Theater in
1996 and 1998; New York City Ballet in 1997. In 2004, the Trisha Brown
Dance Company performed an unforgettable tour de force in Schubert’s
Winterreise with British baritone Simon Keenlyside. Kristy Edmunds
programmed Jérôme Bel twice: in 2007 he presented one of his signature
works, The Show Must Go On. Brett Sheehy presented Akram Khan twice, in
2010 and 2012, with Vertical Road and Desh. Jonathan Mills had included The
Australian Ballet’s Manon starring Sylvie Guillem in 2001. Her unique blend
of technical brilliance and interpretative power were on display in PUSH and
6000 miles away in 2013, in what turned out to be her farewell performances
to Melbourne before announcing her retirement in 2015.
In 2003, Robyn Archer made Body the theme of her Festival and
built an explosive program of work around it. A Franco-Australian exchange,
which had taken four Australian dance companies to France the year before,
brought four important companies to Melbourne for their Australian debuts.
The year of the Body also included performances by Dumb Type from Japan;
the return after a 15-year hiatus of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan; the
category defying I Am Blood, written, directed and choreographed by Jan
Fabre; and The Whirling Dervishes from Turkey. The public was encouraged
to dance too: a joyous program, Dancing in the Streets, held classes in all
styles of dancing every night in Federation Square.
Local companies have also been central to Festival dance
programming. Chunky Move has had a continuing presence since Leo
Schofield’s 1995 Festival when the company made its debut with Fast
Idol; Gideon Obarzanek, their founding Artistic Director, was still in his 20s.
Other key works of theirs have included Festival co-commission Tense Dave
(2003) and I Want to Dance Better at Parties (2005). Brett Sheehy, particularly
interested in breaking down the silos of genre, commissioned Assembly, a
collaboration between Chunky Move and singers from Victorian Opera in 2011.