Destiny
The Sunday Age
Sunday September 9, 2007
Destiny. By the Australian Ballet. At the State Theatre, Arts Centre, until Sep 10. Tel. 1300 136 166. 4/5
In the first half of the 20th century, dance was often an intensely political or ideological performance. The cult of the body offered ways to re-imagine social identities, and was harnessed for purposes ranging from capitalist celebrations of the unfettered individual to communist utopias depicting the combined power of collective physicality. Even fascism found ways of employing dance to promote a monstrous agenda.Not that you need a degree in political history to appreciate the complexity of Les Presages, the first half of the Australian Ballet's fascinating new double bill, Destiny. You could just as easily sit back and marvel at its unfamiliar choreography and bold modernist framework as a gorgeous kitsch confectionery. The asymmetric slashes scoring its male dancers' torsos and the loose hemlines of the female costumes might seem a little like leftovers from the Star Trek wardrobe department, but they effectively amplify every twirl to create a sensation of constant motion.Les Presages was Ballets Russes choreographer Leonid Massine's first symphonic work, and this new staging admirably retains the force and direction of the 1933 original. It follows a man's journey towards destiny, his inevitable course shaped by Action, Frivolity and Passion. It is the incarnations of these emotions that reveal the work's particular historical character - Action (Danielle Rowe) is the most striking of the trio, all choppy moves and sudden sweeps, and Rowe takes on the role with a transfixing vigour. When Passion and Frivolity make an appearance, they can't compete, and the work's movement towards an almost militaristic vision of bodily excellence could even be figured as a pre-Soviet propaganda for the strong and active citizen. That would be reading far too much into this production, though, and would detract from the work's enduring, if often puzzling aesthetic appeal.The second half of the night is devoted to a more languorous work, Kryzsztof Pastor's new Symphonie Fantastique set to Berlioz's score. It opens with a sumptuous projected cloudscape filling the entire rear of the stage, and dancers in white wisps soon cover the space. At their centre is a writer, who falls in love with an idealised woman during his reverie and travels from this love-struck daydream to a dark fate. It's a drawn-out affair, lacking the texture of the Massine work, but visually, at least, it engages. On their own, each of Destiny's halves might lack something, but together they're an unquestionable success.
© 2007 The Sunday Age