Bodytorque.Technique – Australian Ballet

Overview

Fans of ballet and modern dance may want to pirouette into Bodytorque, the annual show created and performed by the up-and-comers of the Australian Ballet. It's traditionally a chance for the company’s young dancers and choreographers to experiment with new ideas, push boundaries and make an impression, and this year’s season takes technique as its theme.

The program features six pieces of the likes of Mode.L, an abstract work set to Igor Stravinsky’s Octet for Wind Instruments featuring three female and two male dancers. “There are three movements within the piece and I have really tried to let the music dictate my choreographic style, which is quite classical but with a modern twist, to best showcase both the dancers and the score," says Halaina Hills, coryphée with the Australian Ballet and choreographer of Mode.L. "The theme for this year was technique. I wanted to show dance as literally that — no emotion, just pure movement.”

After seven years with the company, this marks the choreographic debut for Hills, who is a ballerina first and foremost. "It has been a really bizarre experience to be on the 'other side'," she says. "Having my dancers look at me, waiting for me to tell them what to do certainly took some getting used to. But I have loved being able to take the images from my mind and translate that into movement that I can see in the flesh.”

Being a dancer accustomed to having no responsibility other than showing up to rehearsal warmed-up and ready to work, the huge amount of preparation involved in her choreographic role made an impression. “I spent hours and hours every day at home creating, thinking and analysing what I wanted and how I was going to get it.”

Sydney can sometimes feel quite isolated artistically and anyone that’s lived in a European capital has no doubt encountered the occasional (misguided) sniff of scorn towards our colonial cultural efforts, but Hills sees the dance scene over here as fruitful and exciting. She identifies a trademark gutsiness and characteristic openness in our dancers.

“I think Australians definitely work with a great focus and willingness to try anything. That's what I have experienced working with other choreographers as a dancer, and now as a choreographer working with dancers. Being so far removed from Europe and the USA, we have to create our own style and I think we do that really well.”

Along with Mode.L are five more pieces: Polymorphia, In-Finite, Finding the Calm, Tinted Windows and The Art of War. The fashion design of Toni Maticevski and music of Jonny Greenwood make exciting appearances. The entire show is just over 100 minutes long, so this may be the ideal bite-sized introduction to ballet for the uninitiated.

Those interested in a bit of behind-the-scenes banter can meet the choreographers and artistic director David McAllister in a free Q&A on Saturday, November 2, at 6pm.