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’
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.

