Last night my mom and I went to see the Sydney Dance Company at the Kennedy Center. She knows I love going to the ballet, and since we are celebrating my birthday this week, we thought this would be a great way to celebrate. I had never seen this dance company before (which features dancers mostly from Australia and New Zealand, which surprised me, since so many companies are very global), and even though it was more modern dance than ballet, I was still excited to see the performance.
This was actually the U.S. premiere of this show, and I think the first time this dance company came to the Kennedy Center, too! They were working on Impermanence in 2020, and then the pandemic shut everything down. So now they are finally able to do the international tour four years later.
Rafael Bonachela, choreographer of this piece and the artistic director of the company, says the main message of the performance is that life is "fleeting and vulnerable," and we should "hold dear what we have and make the most of every moment." I live by this kind of stuff! This is why I always stay so busy: we only have so much time on this earth, and I want to do so many things before time runs out. This show focuses on the "ephemeral nature [and] impermanence of human life," which I think everyone can relate to.
One of the coolest parts of the show is that all of the music, composed by Bryce Dessner, is performed by a string quartet on stage. Watching them was almost as cool as watching the dancing! My mom and I both love the cello, and we really enjoyed the music. One song eerily reminded me of This Bitter Earth; I saw a ballet piece choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon to that song, and it has always stuck with me. The last part of Impermanence did also feature the song Another World by the singer Anohni, which threw me off a little bit since everything else was strictly instrumental. But all in all I liked the music, which had a wide range from low and slow to very energetic.
The dancing was the same way. In the first part, called "Before," the dancers were walking around the stage slow-motion, both forward and backward, and occasionally (gracefully) fell on the floor and then got back up. But when the music got faster, the dancers' movements did, too. The moves were "balletic," fluid, and quite athletic as well (sometimes it looked like they were even doing crunches and bridges on the floor). I really enjoyed when the stage was full of dancers moving in sync with one another. There was also one part that reminded me of contact improv, with the dancers touching each other and ending up in a "cuddle puddle" on the floor. And of course there were quintessential modern dance moves that were included, mostly writhing on the floor and flexed feet (i.e. two things that are the opposite of classic ballet). The solo at the end was probably the most modern, with the male dancer rubbing his face and moving his body in a disjointed way. It was probably my least favorite part, so perhaps not the best way to complete the show. But maybe the distress in his movements represented the regret of not living life to the fullest?
Along with the music coming from only four instruments, the set and costumes were minimal as well. The set was a white floor with a white screen, but the screen did change color throughout the performance; sometimes half the screen would be in color, sometimes all of it, and at times it looked like snow was falling, like little sparkles on the screen. The costumes, designed by Aleisa Jelbart, were made from fabric of all muted earth tones and consisted of tops and what essentially were underwear. This allowed for you to really see the muscular definition of the dancers' bodies, which added to the athletic feel of the performance. The dancers also wore socks instead of shoes, and occasionally their feet would make squeaky noises, which was a little distracting. While I do love the tutus and frills of a classic ballet, I appreciated the minimalism of this show, too.
If I ever have the chance to see this dance company again, I definitely would! I thought they did a great job of combining modern dance and ballet, and the graceful, fluid nature of (most of) the show was really beautiful.
There are only two more shows left at the Kennedy Center for tonight and tomorrow, so get your tickets now!
Here's a preview:
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