BALLET: INTERPLAY
BY AMELIA GROOM
Celebrating the boundless partnership of music and dance and the spirit of collaboration, Interplay sees The Australian Ballet team three choreographers with three stars of Australian composition and three innovative designers, to create a triple bill premiere, opening at the Sydney Opera House this week.
Nicolo Fonte, renowned for his elaborate choreography and skilful phrasing, is teamed with Ross Edwards, a key figure in Australian music whose dynamic compositions tap into the natural environment. The set and costumes to compliment the formidable duo are by German designer Markus Pysall.
A leading light of Canadian choreography, Matjash Mrozewski’s dramatic intensity is the perfect foil for contemporary composer Gerard Brophy, whose works are renowned for their exotic rhythms and colourful flourishes. Melbourne-based designer Adam Gardnir has designed sets and costumes for the Mrozewski/Brophy vision of Semele, the myth about Jupiter having an affair with a mortal woman.
The Australian Ballet’s Resident Choreographer Stephen Baynes is renowned for his instinctive response to music and for Interplay he worked with Richard Mills, one of Australia’s pre-eminent composers. The themes surrounding the work involve night in all its different apparitions, and award-winning Michael Pearce, a long-term collaborator of Baynes, created the set and costumes.
Want to know more’ To document the heady process of creation, a website was established for Interplay, tracking the goals and challenges that were faced with the composers, choreographers and designers all working from different corners of the globe. See www.interplayer.com.au
Interplay
Sydney 6 – 25 November
Sydney Opera House
Tickets: $28-$132, 9250 7777 or www.sydneyoperahouse.com
