Dance / Emerging Choreographers Program, QL2 Dance. Gorman Arts Centre. Until  December 15. Reviewed by SAMARA PURNELL.

This new and returning crop of budding choreographers and creators have, under the mentorship of Alison Plevey, Alice Lee Holland and Emma Batchelor presented this year’s program.

A brief introduction and explanation of their work was presented by each choreographer, most of them aged between 15 and 18.

Some introduced their piece while still catching their breaths from dancing in the previous work, as they all performed each other’s works.

DreamScape by Calypso Efkarpidis opened with a dancer radiating coloured string from her bodice – the synapses and connections firing and processing dreams and waking states. Red lighting lit jerky movements and the dancers displayed impressive synchronicity, with nice isolation work from Coral Onn.

Arshiya Abhishree’s Out of Sight, Out of Mind had dancers costumed in maroon harem pants and moving to a relentless soundscape like a train grinding and whistling, where glitchy movements were performed and a striking scene created when dancers were lit against the back wall. Byrne was exceptionally physically expressive with a distinct dance style that draws the eye.

First-time choreographer Alex Potter had his two dancers mirroring each other and controlling each other like a puppet on invisible string in Dominion (Pupa). A simple concept of power and domination and changing the balance of control was depicted in a work that required intrinsic co-operation and exact timing.

Charlie Thomson, whose dancing is consistently exciting and outstanding, used his experience as an eczema sufferer as the inspiration for his work. Thomson says the work is a bit different. The emergence of a dancer crawling on to stage like a caterpillar under a silver tarpaulin would proved him right. The melodic string music of Olafur Arnalds stood out as a juxtaposition with the theme.

Sci-fi books and movies inspired Sam Tonna’s Chromed and Polished, where the boundary of human skin was compared to the potential of robots. Dancers in silver tops executed jerks and tapping movements with complete unison, working well together in tightly formed groups.

Opposing Gratification was Jahna Lugnan’s contribution to the program, with a soundtrack that slowly built pings and metronomic sounds and choreography that displayed a nice chemistry between Christopher Wade and Maya Wille-Bellchambers through repetitive movements increasing and decreasing in speed.

The inclusion of short film Catch and Release, filmed just outside the Melbourne CBD, included some nice angles and scenery and plays with some editing techniques but the choreography, performance and ultimate impact struggled to elevate it to a “dance” film.

The program ended with A Destination Should not be Expected, made and performed by Akira Byrne. Performed with slow-motion imagery of writhing and screaming in pain, raw and graphic dance was a response to a recent operation and ongoing pain from endometriosis. Wearing a peach slip and gown, Byrne dances the interesting choreography with assuredness and confidence.

Without program notes, the subject matter in many of the dances was not obvious, but experience of adapting a studio practice to a theatre is invaluable and gives these young artists the chance to expose their vulnerabilities and receive feedback.