Again I am impressed at the level of ability of dance students, at how these young people use the entire body in sympathy with the content of a dance, its theme, its movement patterns.  More than a few of them are well on their way to being able to move an audience, not only with their physical abilities, but also by passing on an emotion.

The third year dancers in the two duets choreographed by Michael Parmenter stood out in this regard.  Each piece started without music with a central spot lit.  Between Two Fires (Part 1) was danced by Josie Archer and Adam Naughton.  It began with strong physical connections, and the guy seemed in control.  Then they moved a little more apart, but barely out of touch, while still incorporating throws, turns or lifts.  Finally the girl carried him offstage on her back!  The work is demanding and the young people nailed it.

The second piece, Two Fires (Part 2) danced by Xin Ji and Christopher Ofanoa looks less about power, and more about support or togetherness.  They start by walking round the spot holding hands as if tuned in to the same silent music, which turns out to be a song by Charpentier, Tristes Deserts (Sad wildernesses or deserts).  The movement range was generous, including lifts, with sweeping glides, and Ji and Ofanoa moved beautifully together, as if they were a couple dealing with sorrow.

Anna Bates’ the Experience Experience was a fun piece for some nineteen 1^st year students about a first ever album release concert, so it featured budding or hopeful celebrity.  It required recorded cheering, mics and a bank of spotlights, that moved its glare around the stage to highlight a group (or shone onto the audience) and, of course, very importantly, a lot of posturing from the dancers.  Most were on stage throughout, so that movement was interesting and almost continuous, but it cleared for an MC to ask how we, the audience, were getting on.  Groups engaged in concert antics and finished in the traditional way by telling who was on drums etc.

The student piece came from Casey Reid – In the Dark.  She explained it as an exploration of movement, space and light.  It incorporated three easily moveable large white screens and had three dancers.  They moved, apart or together, interchanging spaces with the moveable screens, either beside or in front of one, to make interesting open and balanced shapes.  The movements were individual, and not patterned, quietly using all the body to become a graceful moving picture framed by a light screen in the background.

Claire O’Neil’s Brindd/Un Contexto Formal also featured Year 3 who came onto a darkened stage with the lit area being at first only the lower side of the auditorium.  Girls were all in high heels – to celebrate?  Perhaps yes, as Brindơ means “to drink a toast” and the second part refers to a formal event.  The group went through various configurations, and then words led them on – students supplied snippets of poetry in languages other than English – other words came from notes received from the audience.  These required improvisation but the dancers had no trouble here.  The dancers also made any strong physical requirements in the dance look easy.

All Mine, choreographed by Paul Young for Year 2 dancers had them all clad in gold – a reference to mining, meaning that all had to dig deep to contribute.  The piece was full of action, with jumps, handstands, throws, somersaults, flips, that the dancers carried out with energy and enthusiasm.  We saw short dances from couples, a line of thirteen started off a lovely modulated wave, a body was lifted up high on the hands of a group that then turned it, and it was a lot of fun for both dancers and viewers.

The next piece, Image Test 2: Liberum Spiritus, from Sarah Foster-Sproull, had a group of dancers bring on a white sheet, upright as if wooden, with a hole in the middle.  Through this hole came a bouquet of lots of hands to wave at us, and then, unbelievably, to make the shape of a face which mouthed words!  A girl took the place of the hands so that the sheet became her skirt, and Bin Wang took the stage to perform as if he was a mobile rubber band.  A couple, Tori Manley and Aloalii Tapu, performed a not particularly happy duet, as she is fobbed off to be consoled by a group while he moves off seeming lost.  Again the movements in this piece are complex, requiring full body involvement from able dancers.

Andrew Foster should also take a bow, being responsible for the big job of providing sound or music for three of the pieces, and Sean Curham, as usual, provided sympathetic lighting.

The final piece, introduced by some show-off flips and jumps, allowed all the students (almost 70 of them) to get onto stage to take their bows, acknowledging that “We know we are superstars”.  The standard of dance is indeed very high, and it may be that both the healthy numbers of students, and that standard, result from a lot more very real interest by young people in contemporary dance.

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