Spring Dance

Overview

If you have not heard the name Pina Bausch yet, you will certainly know this dance visionary quite intimately by the end of the 2011 Spring Dance at the Sydney Opera House. Not only is Wim Wenders releasing a film dedicated to her (in 3D) this month, but Spring Dance is also hosting a trilogy of celebratory sessions in her honour. As well as showcasing the exquisite Belgian company Les Ballets C de la B's Out of Context - for Pina.

Bausch's practice of dance theatre is a good touchstone for the majority of the works curated for this season. Returning to Australia for the first time in ten years, British company DV8 combine transcripts from interviews and documentary footage with their explosive dance style to create Can We Talk About This?, an exploration into the many faces of censorship. On a more intimate level is Ros Warby's Monumental, in which she single-footedly unpacks the ballet icons of the swan and the soldier. The theatrical is also very much in plain sight in Fevered Sleep's The Forest, which takes young audiences into the wooden in-between world that lies far beyond urban borders. Finally, playing for Australia is Chunky Move's I Like This, and their dance about a dance demonstrates the manner in which all of these more theatrical performances may have been choreographed.

While there are many different styles and practices represented in this Spring Dance, it is clear that this season is a showcase of dance that has moved far from the constraints of tradition, but without losing any of the precision or skill required by the form.

Image by Chris Van der Burght