The two hours of performance comprising programme 1 of Short + Sweet Dance 2014 provide an extraordinary array of dance works covering a disparate series of themes and pre-occupations communicated through various styles of dance. The overall feeling is that we are celebrating dance in all the ways we currently experience it, and there is no doubting that performers and audience alike delight in the individuality brought  together in Short + Sweet Dance. There is also a general consensus that this is a much stronger collection that last year’s entries.

Two relatively short works feature comedic aspects. Dancer/choreographer Ula Buliruarua’s Spring Cleaning is a rough and ready solo which samples situations involving house cleaning, a cellphone call, and a letter filled with sincere love and endearments from an unexpected source, plus extraordinary vocalisations. Some sections of the audience were seized by hilarity and cheered it rigorously. Benjamin Mitchell’s You probably didn’t sign up for this started quietly enough with a layered cake and three large knives standing at stage right, and quickly degenerated into a farcical fractious trio. Despite some funny momenets, it ultimately failed to deliver any coup de grace.

Three works extend fully to the allotted 10 minute limit, while most seem to satisfy their own requirements at around 8 minutes.  

Dancer/choreographer Duncan Armstrong presents a heartfelt solo in The Closet, with impeccably performed, repeated, extreme movement phrases turning his body upside down and inside out as he writhes and swirls against the floor under a hanging noose, apparently trapped in a very small room.  His movements are accompanied by samples of American, Irish, and Russian hate speech and related public discourses which make evident the connection between homophobic bullying and teen suicide. This is an admirable performance which earns a rousing ovation.

Throat, for three dancers by choreographer Rosa Provost, explores their inability to communicate in words but makes strong use of symbolic gestures which communicate clearly enough. Thoughtful use of the stage space provides a focus for solos within the group presence.  Another trio, Twisted Sisters by Brigitte Knight of the Friday Company, presents The Three Fates, cleverly deriving the movement vocabulary from the actions of knitting which dominate their existence, intermixed with the classic poses of The Fates depicted on the Greek vases and sculptures of antiquity. These fates are in a contemporary time zone, with contemporary music, but the pace is too invariant and a little too fast to allow a more weighted sense of these women’s significance.  

Sixteen performers become guests and more active participants in choreographer Candice Frankland’s Arabic Wedding, featuring traditional dances in formal dress introducing the bride and groom to guests at a Egyptian wedding, followed by traditional entertainment. The dancing included an awesome solo by Candice Frankland, as the Bride wearing a chandelier headdress, an authoritative wielding of a large white flag by the Groom, Ivan Essin, and a trio of womanly Ghawazee entertainers in a very circumspect form of bellydance, with bare skin confined to ankles and wrists and faces.

There’s a sense of loss permeating Fissure, a beautifully flowing dance for five choreographed by Hannah Thompson which somehow absorbs you into its patterning without necessarily leaving any strong images behind, other than the restlessly flying flock of [small birds? bats? large insects?] which provide a projected backdrop as the work closes.  By contrast, Camelle Pink’s Unfurl leaves a strong, clear image behind, with two versions of the same solo presented side by side, making compelling viewing. Beautifully controlled phrasing and allowance for individual nuances suggest that it is only the first part of something longer and more complex. With the stage floor marked into two boxes outlined in red tape, Pink dances a more sensual, audience-directed, outwardly-connecting version of the solo, and beside her, in parallel but with very different feel and timing, Sophie Follet presents an inner-focussed, more weighted, softer flowing version.

Two works take as their starting point over-used contemporary dance phrases, gestures or actions. In the disconcerting So Euro, a balaclava clad improvisational trio directed by Lucy Marinkovich (who has recently been closely observing current performances in Europe) desparately gyrate about for a bit, grab a microphone to utter text about the politics of improvisation and the anarchy of absurdity then comment inanely while removing endless pairs of knickers which are dropped in a pile. By contrast, Lydia Connolly Hiatt’s In Default, which starts with the over-used material foregrounded, quickly becomes a fascinating, immersive work for eight dancers in ever-shifting transitional groupings – moving through wedges and inverted triangles to squares and occasional lines, with solo moments scattered throughout.

Also successful at taking over-used narrative material and turning it around in a surprising manner, is an excerpt from James Luck’s commercially styled narrative cabaret work Gifted. Set in a downmarket speakeasy/house of ill-repute, this brought to the fore an array of highly individual chair-dancing “entertainers”, ranging from slovenly to sleazy, affable to aggro. Ultimately, one very put-upon woman uses the kiss of death to stop a sleazeball in his tracks. She got a round of cheers from the audience.

Two very strong ensemble works with great audience appeal and fantastic performers seem to be the audience favourites.

Omea Geary’s Looper exploits the looping structures of its uncredited score, echoing their nature with theme and variation choreography which leaves lots of room for the five dancers to bring their own individual touches to – which they do with aplomb.

Ultimately, the standout work is Vivian Hosking-Aue’s Opaque delivered by a considerably experienced group of nine men whose backgrounds include all of the current “dance training sources” this city offers , with luminary high school dance programmes such as Rutherford High School, private studios The Dance Studio and Boyzdance, Black Grace Urban Youth Movement, UNITEC, U of A, Excel, Pacific Dance Choreolab, Dziah and Identity crews in the mix.  Small wonder that their performance is electrifying, with terrific contemporary/hiphop/commercial fusion choreography rotating their talents, leaving room for fantastic physical tricks, and providing a surprise ending, capping off the mayhem with a schmaltzy group serenade delivered to an apparently random woman from the audience. 

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