Dance / Diamond by Liz Lea and colleagues. At The Q Theatre, Queanbeyan, until August 8. Reviewed by MICHELLE POTTER

Diamonds are indestructible; people are not. No matter what media statements might and do say about the brilliance and dazzling complexity of womanhood, for me the idea of destructibility, and its opposite, lies at the heart of Liz Lea’s latest show, Diamond.

Diamond is the second part of a projected dance trilogy. The first was Lea’s 2012 show Red, which took us on a journey through Lea’s career as a dancer battling endometriosis. Diamond takes us through a new stage of life as Lea discusses her problems with the physical and mental issues experienced during and after menopause.

The dancing in Diamond was distinctively varied. The show opened with Lea standing centre stage in a sparkling costume. She moved slowly with expressive arms, which nevertheless suggested that age had diminished her ability to undertake complex choreography. She danced with stronger movements at other points throughout the show but much of her input involved sitting on a chair, in a simple, black body-hugging costume, and speaking about her difficulties as she faced the inevitability of living with an ageing body. She pulled no punches as she explained those difficulties, with frequent reference to vaginal problems and the life consequences of such issues. From this point of view, Diamond was certainly a courageous show.

The most dancerly moments came from the High Kix dancers from Canberra’s Born Funk studios. They are comparatively young women and looked fabulous in their blue, feathery outfits. They moved beautifully, even with what was relatively simple choreography, and their role in the show allowed us to look back at Lea’s early career as a cabaret dancer.

Then, towards the end of the production, dancers from Canberra Dance Theatre’s GOLD company took the stage, adding dancers older than Lea to the situation. They moved around the stage making attractive groupings rather than dancing anything complex. They too looked fabulous in decorative black and white costumes, including somewhat startling hats. There were even two men involved.

Diamond was stunningly put together as a multi-faceted production. It had exceptional lighting by Karen Norris. Her input was engaging from the beginning, even on the empty stage before the actual performance had started, to the end where an object was placed on the floor and sent out diamond-like rays of light into the auditorium. The diamond rather than the person lives on.

There was also some strikingly structured film input from cinematographer James Hiscutt. It included an absolutely absorbing section where Lea appeared on the backcloth/screen as autumn leaves fell around her body.

But as a whole Diamond was a production that opened up an area of a woman’s life that perhaps needs not to be made so public, or not with so much confronting speech. Dance can do it without words, or at least on this occasion with fewer words. Then perhaps I am ageing as I disliked the way the subject was constantly and unnecessarily frank in its text? Just dance!

Who knows what the third part of the trilogy will involve?

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