Review: NEW BREED 2024 - Sydney Dance Company's Choreographic Voices

In its 11th iteration, Sydney Dance Company's New Breed continues to be a vital platform for empowering emerging Australian choreographers, offering a compelling snapshot of contemporary dance's future. This year's program - featuring works by Piran Scott, Dean Elliott, Siobhan McKenna, and Amber McCartney - demonstrates the remarkable depth and diversity of the nation's young choreographic talent.

Piran Scott's Breath opens the evening, drawing inspiration from Tim Winton's profound meditation on respiration. The work explores humanity's most fundamental yet overlooked physiological process, further reflecting on John Butler's Ocean and designed with Alexander Berlage's evocative lighting. Scott transforms the simple act of breathing into a metaphorical journey, revealing its capacity to represent trauma, beauty, and human connection. Being the first performance of the show, the anticipation is high, and the work meets the expectation.

Dean Elliott's FULL IN/HALF OUT offers a dynamic exploration of athleticism and artistry, and undertakes a full exploitation of the space, with a dramatic lighting change virtually transforming the costuming in an instant. Choreographed collaboratively with the dancers, the piece brilliantly captures the tension between individual ambition and collective effort. Elliott ingeniously navigates the delicate interplay between precision and power, creating a work that feels simultaneously competitive and unified. Connor McMahon's original composition provides a rhythmic backbone to this exploration of performance and rivalry.

Siobhan McKenna's Say It Again provides perhaps the most conceptually intricate work of the evening, given there is no accompanying music, with the soundtrack purely created by the rustling of the worn textiles, and rhythmic vocalisations that crescend at the finale. Treating communication as a form of choreography, McKenna deconstructs conversation's inherent balance and repetitions. The piece transforms linguistic interactions into a physical dialogue, celebrating the nuanced "dance" of human communication. Her collaborative approach with dancers brings an authenticity to the work's exploration of interpersonal dynamics. It's a compelling performance.

Finally Amber McCartney's closing piece Leech, draws inspiration from the 1978 film version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (and other body-horror movies of the time), and offers the most experimental work of the program. The work is tortured, contorted, and brilliantly executed. There is much disciplined movement in the piece, backlit with dark costuming, along with semi-naked forms creating a represented vulnerability of humanity against a parasitic force, perhaps both physical and intangible. The work definitely challenges traditional narrative and formal dance structures, perfectly embodying the program's commitment to the exploration of choreographic boundaries.

Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela's drive to nurture talent is evident. The program, supported by The Balnaves Foundation and presented at Carriageworks, continues to be a crucial incubator for Australian contemporary dance, offering these choreographers a professional platform to experiment and develop their craft.

The Sydney Dance Company ensemble - a group of extraordinarily versatile performers - again brings each work to life with technical precision and emotional depth. Their ability to adapt to four distinctly different choreographic languages speaks volumes about their artistic range.

NEW BREED 2024 reinforces Sydney Dance Company's role not just as a performing ensemble, but as a critical developmental environment for Australian dance. It celebrates creativity, risk-taking, and the continuous evolution of contemporary choreography.

Performance Dates:
WEEK ONE
Thursday 5 December, 7.30pm
Friday 6 December, 7.30pm
Saturday 7 December, 7.30pm

WEEK TWO
Tuesday 10 December, 7.30pm
Wednesday 11 December, 7.30pm
Thursday 12 December, 7.30pm
Friday 13 December, 7.30pm
Saturday 14 December, 2.00pm & 7.30pm

Bookings: https://my.sydneydancecompany.com/overview/1748

Company Dancers:
Timmy Blankenship
Naiara de Matos
Dean Elliott
Tayla Gartner
Liam Green
Luke Hayward
Morgan Hurrell
Ngaere Jenkins
Sophie Jones
Connor McMahon
Ryan Pearson
Piran Scott
Emily Seymour
Mia Thompson
Coco Wood
Chloe Young