I enjoy premieres where the artistic director steps on stage to give a welcoming blurb. David Hallberg’s are always laced with a little challenge. For the Sydney premiere of Australian Ballet's Instruments of Dance, he finished with: “Enjoy, and have an opinion about it! Like some, don’t like some, that’s what art’s about.”
With that blessing, I went on to like and dislike parts of this triple bill. It opened with the weakest piece, Wayne McGregor’s all-male and very banal Obsidian Tear. Choreographed for nine men, the programme describes it as an “exploration of geology, myth and the violent effects of emotion on the body”. The ballet focuses on the seemingly complex relationship between the black-clad Callum Linnane and the red-wearing Adam Elmes. I say “seemingly” because their dynamic was choreographed very poorly – it was tortured in that one-dimensional, typical modern dance sort of way that assumes intense emotions make up for bad choreography. With their rippling naked torsos and flowing pants, this section looked like a cheap rip-off of Jiří Kylián’s Bella Figura, but without the lyrical beauty. They were joined by seven other men, also dressed in black (costumes designed by no less than seven designers, of the like of Vivienne Westwood). In some unsubtle symbolism, and in what looked like an imitation of Pina Bausch’s Rite of Spring, Elmes’ red pants prove too much for the men in black. He is attacked by the mob and ultimately thrown off the stage by Linnane, who promptly has a breakdown. At this point it was hard to know why I should care, since everything before felt like pretentious melodrama.
This was no fault of the dancers, who showcased some exceptional male dancing despite the lacklustre choreography and Esa-Pekka Salonen's uneven score. Elmes, picked from the corps, was especially good and a strong match for Linnane, a principal dancer. Adam Bull – always physically and artistically magnificent – also shone, overcoming even his unflattering costume.
Alice Topp’s Annealing was a breath of fresh air – her choreography is emotionally intense, but rarely has the pretentiousness that made Obsidian Tear so tiring. Annealing is about the strength that comes in vulnerability, and the title comes from the name of the heat treatment process used to shape and strengthen glass and other metals. It is visually spectacular, danced on a set of imposing glass panels with the dancers clothed in silver and gold. At one point the full ensemble of 50 dancers assembled on stage, decked in magnificent golden robes which they swished about; I felt I’d been transported to some exotic, futuristic feudal society. There were also lyrical duets and solos interspersed throughout. Elmes impressed again, this time partnered with the equally compelling Samara Merrick, a powerhouse of physicality and focus.