Dance / “Ascent”, Sydney Dance Company. At The Playhouse, until March 11. Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

IT’S not unusual for companies to premiere new works in Canberra.

We are the national capital after all. However, it is unusual for the Sydney Dance Company to premiere one of its works outside Sydney. In fact, this is the first time the company has done this in the 15 years Rafael Bonachela has been its artistic director.

“Ascent” contains two world premieres. Bonachela’s own new work, “I Am-ness”;  and the first Australian-commissioned work by Spanish choreographer, Marena Mascarell, “The Shell, A Ghost, The Host and the Lyrebird”.  The third work in this triple bill is a revival of Antony Hamilton’s 2018 Helpmann Award winning masterwork, “Forever & Ever”.

The evening commenced on a meditative note with the opening strains of Peteris Vasks’ “Lonely Angel” filling the darkened theatre to herald Bonachela’s “I Am-ness”. As the curtain slowly rose, four dancers were revealed, motionless on a haze-filled stage. They began to respond to the music forming complex sculptural patterns, engaging and disengaging with each other with superbly controlled and co-ordinated movement enhanced by Damien Cooper’s moody lighting design.

“I Am-ness” is classic Bonachela. Another striking showcase of  his mastery of movement in which he works with four perfectly attuned dancers, Naiara de Matos, Piran  Scott, Madeline Harms and Riley Fitzgerald to create an abstract visualisation of the music, so beautiful and compelling as to make it impossible to listen to this music again without the image of these dancers running through the mind.

By way of contrast, Marina Mascarell’s stunning creation, “The Shell, A Ghost, The Host & The Lyrebird” contained very little actual dance as such. Instead Mascarell offered a strikingly beautiful abstract staging involving hectares of ropes and fabric manipulated by nine dancers to create, what appeared to be, a storm at sea.

The remarkable set and costumes designed by Lauren Brincat and Leah Giblin certainly had a nautical flavour with red, white, and blue highlights featured prominently, while Damien Cooper’s atmospheric lighting design and Nick Wales impressionistic soundtrack. which featured naturalistic sounds of creaking wood, sea birds and wind among the orchestrations, heightened this impression.

Throughout the work the dancers wrestled with the ropes and fabrics to create ever-changing stage pictures, occasionally swaying side to side as if blown by wind, while fascinating with their ability to avoid potential disaster.

Rounding out this triple-bill, a welcome revival of Anthony Hamilton’s extra-ordinary 2018 creation, “Forever and Ever”, which commences even before most of the audience have resumed their seats after interval.  Returning to their seats the audience is startled to notice lone dancer, Jesse Scales, earnestly practicing striking moves on the unlit stage.  A flash of light heralds the reveal of the stark black and white stage. Scales exits as a line of dancers, ominously costumed in huge black or white full-length puffer jackets, slowly take the stage.

Paula Levis’ remarkable costume design is inspired by babushka dolls, and as the work progresses the puffer jackets are removed to reveal more layers, firstly  bright yellow and black, then red and black, until the dancers finish in simple brief black attire.