★★★★☆ Rules are joyfully bent and broken in four explorations of the new.

Carriageworks, Sydney
November 29, 2016

Sydney Dance Company Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela describes New Breed as an opportunity for young choreographers to “push the boundaries of their practice” by working on new, resourced works with dancers at the very top of their game. In this year’s outing, the third collaboration between SDC, Carriageworks and the Balnaves Foundation, boundaries are not only pushed, they’re bent, buckled and broken in a joyful celebration of the extended possibilities of the art form.

Jesse Scales – one of the two SDC dancers stepping up (the other is Richard Cilli) – opens proceedings with What You See, on the surface one of the more conventional offerings. Tackling themes of sadness, despair and depression, Scales exposes three lost souls in a series of solos, framing each with paced sequences where we explore ideas of barriers and defence mechanisms. Played out against the sound of heavy rain, Benjamin Cisterne’s moody lighting gives it a lonely Sydney, 2am sort of feel. Cass Mortimer Eipper conjures images of ruptured sleep patterns in his sensitively flexed solo, while Nelson Earl’s apprehension is worn on his expressive face...