Pulse is a showcase of cutting-edge contemporary dance from four groundbreaking international and Australian choreographers.

 

The program, to be performed by WAAPA’s 2nd and 3rd Year student dancers, includes works by Chinese choreographer Xianrong Xiao, Dutch choreographer Nils Christe, LINK Artistic Director Michael Whaites and WAAPA alumnus and ex-SDC dancer Kynan Hughes. Pulse will be performed in WAAPA’s Geoff Gibbs Theatre from Saturday 2nd May through to Friday 8th May at 7.30pm.

 

Renowned Chinese choreographer Xianrong Xiao brings his fluid and organic stylings to a new work that will be devised with the graduating dancers. Acclaimed Dutch choreographer Nils Christe and his co-assistant wife, Annegien Sneep, will remount Christe’s famous ballet, SYNC. This is the first time a student group has been given permission to remount this acclaimed piece.

 

Watch the Royal Swedish Ballet perform SYNC in this 2011 video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8rAjSM1Dec

 

SYNC is a fast paced, high voltage piece that combines both classical and modern dance techniques, for a cast of nine women on point and three men,” says Christe. “Originally created for the Washington Ballet, this will be the first time that a school will perform parts from the original 45-minute piece.”

“The WAAPA 3rd Year dancers are very versatile, and they are picking up on the style and movements extremely well. We are all excited about bringing SYNC to the stage here in Perth.”

Completing the Pulse program will be works by local LINK Artistic Director, Michael Whaites and WAAPA alumnus and ex-SDC dancer, Kynan Hughes.

 


PERFORMANCE INFORMATION: PULSE

GEOFF GIBBS THEATRE, ECU, 2 Bradford St, Mount Lawley

Tickets $25 / $20 Concession and Friends

Sat 2, Mon 4, Tues 5, Wed 6, Thurs 7, Fri 8 May, 7.30pm

Performed by: WAAPA 2nd and 3rd Year Dance students

Choreographers: Nils Christe, Xianrong Xiao, Michael Whaites, Kynan Hughes

BOOK NOW: Tel: (08) 9370 6895 or online at: waapa.ecu.edu.au/boxoffice

Alexandre Da Costa and Friends. WAAPA Music Auditorium. 17 April – Reproduced Review by Neville Cohn, West Australian, Saturday 18 April.

Fascinating fare which ranged from the profoundly moving to the delightfully ridiculous ensured an altogether engrossing evening of chamber music.

Violinist Alexandre Da Costa, Micheal Goldschlager (cello) and Anna Sleptsova (piano) gave an account of Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No 2 which riveted the attention. Written in 1944 in the aftermath of the Nazi’s siege of Leningrad, the work is the apotheosis of bitterness, despair and anger beyond anger – and the players did wonders in evoking the confronting harshness of much of the writing.

Relentless pounding piano chords and ear-grating dissonance on violin and cello – plus pizzicato that sounded as if ripped from violin and cello – brought us face to face with the composer.

At the other end of the mood scale is Bohuslav Martinu’s insouciant La Revue de Cuisine, music for a ballet about, of all things, kitchen implements. It’s delightful material, presented with panache by the Indian Ocean Ensemble, a newly established group of senior WAAPA students under the guidance of Da Costa.

These young player did well in conveying the essence of this tongue-in-cheek music. It is perhaps invidious to single out individuals but it would be ungracious not to mention the skill of Madeleine Antoine violin, Natalya Czernicziw (bassoon) and pianist Ryan Davies. Earlier we heard Martinu’s serenade and a movement from a divertimento by Joseph Haydn’s brother Michael.

This was in impressive debut by the Indian Ocean Ensemble.

As a curtain-raiser, we listened to Da Costa and Goldschlager in Norwegian composer Johan Halvorsen’s reworking of a Handel Passacaglia.