Dance at the Sydney Festival – Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet’s ‘Babel’, Martin del Amo’s ‘Anatomy of an Afternoon’ and Gideon Obarzanek’s ‘Assembly’

Assembly-hooligans
Chunky Move, the Victorian Opera and the Sydney Phiharmonia Choirs "hawling like brooligans" in Gideon Obarzanek's Assembly. Photo by Jeff Busby.

Babel (words)
Sydney Theater: 11 January 2012

Choreography - Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Damien Jalet
Visual Concept & design - Antony Gormley
Lighting - Adam Carrée
Costumes - Alexandra Gilbert
Music Adviser - Fahrettin Yarkin
Dramaturgy - Lou Cope
Assistant Choreographer - Nienke Reehorst

Dancers and Actors (Eastman) - Navala Chaudari, Francis Ducharme, Jon Filip Fahlstroem, Damien Fournier, Ben Fury, Kazutomi Kozuki, Christine LeBoute, Moya Michael, James O'Hara, Helder Seabra, Ulrika Kinn Svensson, Darryl E. Woods

Music - Patrizia Bovi, Mahabub Khan, Sattar Khan, Gabriele Miracle, Shogo Yoshii

Anatomy of an Afternoon
Playhouse, Sydney Opera House: 12 January 2012

Concept and Direction - Martin del Amo
Choreography - Martin del Amo and Paul White
Dancer - Paul White
Composer - Mark Bradshaw
Lighting designer - Matthew Marshall
Musicians - Jacob Abela (celeste), Andrew Smith (saxophone), Marcus Whale (saxophone and laptop)
Production manager - Mike Smith
Costume consultant - Rani Patience
Producer - Viv Rosman (Performing Lines)

Assembly
City Recital Hall, Angel Place Sydney: 13 January 2012

Director & Choreographer - Gideon Obarzanek
Music Director - Richard Gill
Lighting Designer - Nick Schlieper
Costume Designer - Harriet Oxley
Set Designers - Gideon Obarzanek & Chris Mercer
Assistant Choreographer - Stephanie Lake
Assistant Music Director - Daniel Carter

Dancers (Chunky Move) - Sara Black, Nathan Dubber, Benjamin Hancock, Alisdair Macindoe, Lily Paskas, Harriet Ritchie, James Shannon, Frankie Snowdon

Principal singers (The Victorian Opera) - Casselle Bonollo, Olivia Cranwell, Frederica Cunningham, Tobias Glaser, Jeremy Kleeman, Matthew Thomas, Daniel Todd

Guest Singer - Queenie van de Zandt

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Music-
Io Tacero - Gesualdo
Amicus Meus - Victoria
O Vos Omnes - Victoria
Hear My Prayer - Henry Purcell
Ave Verum - Plainchant
Video Caelos Apertos - Plainchant
Christus Surrexit - Plainchant
My World Is Empty Without You - Holland B/Dozier L/Holland E

Parody as a technique of satire ought to suit theatrical dance well. Irish poets, known as some of the greatest masters of this form, in imitating and reversing the meter of their victim’s poems in order to devastate them are said to have used the same technique as Russian witches: "they walk quietly behind their victim, exactly mimicking his gate; then when in perfect sympathy with him suddenly stumble and fall, taking care to fall soft while he falls hard." [1] Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet's piece Babel (words) takes on the modern world, in a deliberate mixture of satire, serious avant-garde dance, science fiction, declamatory monologues and something bordering on a three-ring circus.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!