Australasian Dance Collective is returning to the company’s dance theatre roots with its final presentation for the 2023 season, Halcyon.

The company forged an international reputation as Expressions Dance Company from 1984 until 2019. The rebranding as ADC under artistic director Amy Hollingsworth reflected a change in direction – a drive to push boundaries and feature a diverse range of choreographic voices.

One of those voices regularly featured is Jack Lister’s – he’s both an ADC company creative associate and artist, who also maintains an ongoing role with Queensland Ballet as associate choreographer.

Halcyon is his first full-length work. His concept and direction are ambitious in scope and atmospherically staged – a murder-mystery mood piece intermingling dance theatre and film noir. Dialogue from classic films such as Casablanca is interspersed with projections of text plus live movement, and pivotal vocals both spoken and sung.

The audience enters the Brisbane Powerhouse Theatre as an open space with two configurations of non-linear stages in the centre. On the floor between them is a chalk body outline. This promenade presentation (put plainly, it means you have to stand for the entire show) has the potential to provide a heightened immersive experience, but it also requires considered shepherding of viewers to desired vantage positions to work effectively.

Unfortunately, on opening night the audience did the Aussie thing of standing back, around the perimeter, lest they be incorporated into the action (just so you know – that’s not going to happen). Anchored in one spot without moving through the space, it was tiring standing for 75 minutes.

In this instance, you might as well be seated comfortably. The other downside was that those occupying the handful of seats against a wall had their view blocked by others standing in front of them.

It was a shame because the layers of this work, and its imagery, are poetic and beautiful, using bird motifs – kingfishers and eagles – as a starting point.

It feels a bit like being in a live performance of Cluedo when we encounter the ensemble of seven, including Lister, each in the guise of a distinctive character. The most unique and compelling of these is Lilly King’s corseted showgirl with an awkwardly grotesque manner reminiscent of Riff-Raff in Rocky Horror.

It’s when the movement changes from solos to partnering and group work that it really engages. There’s a beautifully menacing pas de deux rendered in slow motion by a strobe, set to voiceover from the Rita Hayworth classic Gilda: “Hate is a very exciting emotion. Haven’t you noticed? Very exciting. I hate you too, Johnny.”

The high brick feature wall is used to striking dramatic effect for projections as well as a compelling group movement section. The power is palpable when the full ensemble continues onto the platforms for some tapping and fighting-cum-formal ballroom dancing.

In the end we do find out who dies, but not with certainty whodunnit.

Halcyon registers as an abstract series of vignettes rather than a straightforward narrative. While it is complex, evocative and visually rewarding, its merits are diminished somewhat by the shortcomings of the stagnant viewing experience. I hope the company can devise a way to optimise the intended effect so that audiences can get the most out of this cleverly imaginative work which features arresting film and visual design by Ryan Renshaw.

Australasian Dance Collective: Halcyon, until November 12, Brisbane Powerhouse, New Farm

brisbanepowerhouse.org

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