Preview: Sydney Dance Company

Energetic contemporary dance group Sydney Dance Company, based at a former train depot, have shot up in prestige since artistic director Rafael Bonachela took over in 2009. Bonachela, born in the Catalan village of La Garriga in 1972, spent most of his dance career with London’s Rambert Dance Company before establishing his own company in 2006. He caught the eye of pop and soul icons Kylie Minogue and Tina Turner, choreographing both on their international tours. Working with the former took him down under and when commissioned to develop the piece 360º with Sydney Dance Company, the Catalan so wowed the Australians that he was offered the post of artistic director by unanimous decision.

This is the first time that Bonachela brings Sydney Dance Company to Barcelona where they will perform two pieces, 6 Breaths and LANDforms, both of which are set to the emotive yet urgent scores of Ezio Bosso, a young Italian composer who works regularly with Bonachela. The choreography, a blend of classical, urban and contemporary dance, is physically demanding. Australian dancers suit his needs, Bonachela has said, “a dancer is an athlete...and Australian dancers are generally in very good shape.” They are also long-limbed and this works well in his slick, sexy choreography which is all about extension and equilibrium. In pieces such as 360º and The Land of Yes and The Land of No dancers interact with mathematical precision, like a geometry set that has come alive. “The idea,” according to Bonachela “is that the audience can see the dancer at all angles.”

6 Breaths and LANDforms also lean towards group choreography, and the ‘multifaceted’ is reflected in their narrative structure too. 6 Breaths is a journey through life via different types of respiration; LANDforms follows the evolution of land from rural wilderness to its fragmentation through urbanisation and industry.

Bonachela compares dance to poetry in its ability to evoke more than it physically presents, yet what is also communicated to the audience through his breathtaking choreography is something of the visible structure of text: a fluidity punctuated by moments of suspension.  

November 24th-27th.  www.mercatflors.cat