Dance / “Terra Firma”. QL2 Dance. Choreographed by Melanie Park, Cadi McCarthy and Stephen and Lilah Gow. The Playhouse, until May 28. Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

QL2 Dance varies from other dance companies in that its works are always created around social issues of concern to its young participants. 

The dancers are encouraged to study the issues and contribute ideas on how their thoughts can be expressed in dance terms.

Professional choreographers work with the dancers to translate these ideas into cohesive ensemble dance works, thereby giving the young dancers invaluable insights into the process of dance creation. 

This process has been nurtured by artistic director Ruth Osborne, who for the last 23 years has surrounded her dancers with professional choreographers, designers and composers to bring those ideas to fruition. 

The concept for this year’s presentation is “Terra Firma”, a triple bill of three separate dance works examining concepts of solid ground in an ever-changing world. The works were created under particularly difficult conditions as a result of the covid pandemic, with dancers having to rehearse in masks, and in some cases via Zoom. None of which is evident in the three powerful works that make up the program, which were danced with extraordinary commitment and precision by the 25 dancers involved.

Melanie Lane explored materialism through the relationship between body, objects and our built environment with her work “Metal Park”. It commenced with the dancers grouped in a striking, dimly lit tableau. As the tableau unfolded, four large black objects emerged that were revealed as black garbage suggesting waste. 

Working to an atmospheric score by Christopher Clark that featured repeated harsh metallic sounds, the busy dancers, costumed in shades of grey, white and black, moved between mechanical unison movement, groupings in which they strained against each other and acrobatic tableau’s, various household items and long rods to create a powerfully conceived and performed evocation of modern society. 

Cadi McCarthy, with her work, “Shifting Ground”, which was performed to a dramatic soundscape composed by Zackari Watt, called on her dancers to explore the shifting environmental, political, social and emotional terrains in which they exist. 

For this work, which included four visiting dancers from McCarthy’s own Newcastle youth dance ensemble, Flipside, McCarthy employed a fascinating movement repertoire that required the dancers, costumed in attractive rust and black costumes, to break into two groups to perform complex unison movement and finally ending with a single figure alone on the stage. 

The third work “Tides of Time” by husband and wife choreographers, Stephen and Lilah Gow, explored notions of time, questioning ideas of present, past and future. Working to Adam Ventoura’s compelling soundscape, the work commenced with a filmed sequence by Wildbear Digital.

As the work progressed the black background was replaced by beautiful watery images through which the dancers appeared to float. “Tides of Time” is a beautifully choreographed, visually striking work which proved the perfect finale for a memorable evening of challenging, superbly performed new works.

With every aspect superbly produced and performed “Terra Firma” is an outstanding example of why QL2 Dance is so admired as the nation’s leading youth dance organisation.