Recap by Member Fiona Fox. From the treadmill to the theatre was just the ticket last Thursday when I joined the Club party out for a dose of culture in good company at the Dine and Dance evening.
About a dozen members and guests met at Jounieh Restaurant on the boardwalk at Walsh Bay for an early Lebanese style dinner. Sharing a meal and an adventure is a fine way to find out more about fellow members. (Did you know we have a flamenco dance student in our midst?)
We shared travel tales and solved a few of the world’s problems – as you do – over some fancy spiced cauliflower and salad with pomegranate, splendid baba ghanouj, hummus and my favourite, slow-cooked lamb to rival what you’ll find in Mudgee, arguably the home of Aussie slow-cooked meat.
In good time, we found our way over to the Roslyn Packer Theatre where we caught the Q&A with the choreographers of the three works that make up the Sydney Dance Company production, Continuum, the main event of the evening. Rafael Bonachela, long-time celebrated choreographer for SDC and an airy sprite of a person, Tra Mi Dinh, former SDC dancer now finding acclaim as a choreographer, and Stephen Page, famous for his work with Bangarra Dance Theatre.
So we felt we had a little behind-the-scenes insight as we found our way to our seats, and great seats they were too, Row E, one behind where Tra Mi Dinh was sitting to watch the show.
No matter how hard you work out in the AD, unless you too are a professional dancer or athlete who has trained many hours a day for many years, I fear you’ll find yourself wanting if you compare yourself to the gifted SDC dancers. My tip would be to let yourself simply marvel at their superb movement, athleticism and beautiful bodies in their peak condition.
If I had to choose, Rafael Bonachela’s Spell was my favourite; as captivating as the name suggests, the dance was fluid and fantastic. It made me wonder whether perhaps modern ballet is the only one of the arts that is more complex now. Tra Mi Dinh’s Somewhere between ten and fourteen – the degrees of the sun over the three stages of a blue twilight – had the company moving like an amorphous organic being. Stephen Page’s Unungkati Yantatja – one with the other, featured William Barton on the didgeridoo and on stage with the Omega Ensemble playing his music with the dancers in the foreground. This work received a standing ovation.
It was a super evening out with fellow clubbies. I was sorry not to have had a chance to share a review and say goodnight as we all dispersed into the exiting audience after the show, but I know we’ll have something more than just howdy to say when we next meet at the Club.
