The first time I reviewed Melanie Lane’s Love Lock in 2024 for Sydney Dance Company, I described it as ‘a cult I absolutely want to join’. On second viewing, I want to upgrade that declaration to a cult I wish I’d founded. My inaugural experience of Love Lock and its joyous, deranged originality inspired a review almost every bit as unhinged as the work itself. Two years later, I stand by every ridiculous word.
Regrettably, I can’t verify whether my review of Love Lock’s Sydney premiere in 2024 inspired any ocean voyages. If anyone did, please reach out. I can, however, confirm that the work did, travelling to Paris for a sold-out season in 2025. It’s now back performing down under and all I have to say is I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE AND IT IS SEXY BIRD PEOPLE.
Safe to say my enthusiasm is undiminished. Love Lock is one of those rare works where its sheer originality goes hammer and tong with its equally exquisite craftsmanship. Even on second (and probably fifty-second) viewing, it’s an exhilarating sensory ambush. This time, with some idea what to expect, I could better devote my attention to the countless details beneath the initial rush of “O brave new world, that has such people in it” wonder. Those details include Clark’s zany, flute-and-bird-call-filled electronic score; Akira Isogawa’s spectacular designs of moss-green tendrils, sky-blue frills, gold sashes, and red sequins; Damien Cooper’s smoky, futuristic set; and the pulsing, intricate bodies of scores of formidably trained dancers who more than got the memo.
The danger of opening a triple bill with a work as joyfully original as Love Lock is that everything that follows is inevitably measured against it.
The middle piece, The Mass Ornament, is the Australian premiere by Berlin-based Spanish choreographer Fran Díaz. I’m not sure this would be everyone’s cup of tea, and by ‘everyone’ I mean me. It’s certainly energetic. Aggressively, relentlessly so. Henryk Górecki’s heart-thumping score combines cardio with baroque. The choreography could hold its own on any major thoroughfare at peak hour, with lots of commuter-rush energy: angry purposeful walking, pumping arms and frantic unapologetic collisions. These people have places to be! Though it’s unclear where! The dancers are wearing green, military-style satin pyjamas. Make of that what you will. I will say it did allow for freedom of movement. Freedom of thought may be another question.
Thankfully, the final piece, The Journey Itself Is Home, choreographed by Sydney Dance Company’s Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela, achieves something quieter but not necessarily less intense. After the abrasive urgency of The Mass Ornament, Bonachela’s piece arrives like an exhale.
Bonachela’s most recent creation is much ‘prettier’ and more lyrical than his classics, though still undeniably powerful and exhilarating, thanks to the company’s unique combination of athleticism and liquid connection. The choreography is emotionally earnest and edges at times towards convention centre energy. Even the costumes (Kelsey Lee) lean a bit unexpectedly ‘American Dance Competition’ with everyone in crisp, luminous, angelic white – a contrast to Sydney Dance Company’s earthier, more familiar palette of rust, charcoal, olive and sand. This virginal aesthetic is entirely suited to the theme, just a little left of the usual SDC centre – and the sheer talent of the company dancers keeps the piece from tipping into sentimentality.
The Journey Itself Is Home is less interested in spectacle than atmosphere. Cool blues and silvers (lighting by Damien Cooper), combined with a reflective floor, create a world that feels suspended somewhere between the ocean and the night sky. The backdrop is a constellation of scattered points of light, transforming the space into something vast, gorgeous and celestial.
This is a triple bill that never repeats itself, refusing to settle into a single mood, movement, or aesthetic. Between Love Lock’s delirious originality, The Mass Ornament’s uncompromising intensity, and The Journey Itself Is Home’s luminous beauty, Sydney Dance Company offers three exhilarating and sharply contrasting works that demonstrate just how elastic contemporary dance can be.
