![]() Thanks for signing up to the InReview newsletter. Get InReview in your inbox – free each Saturday. Wearing vibrant shades of ocean, sky and forest in contemporary costumes designed by Renate Henschke, the dancers interact with one another in dreamy slow motion, or in a rush of dynamism in parallel with the interplay of light and dark, and the atmospheric soundscapes. The dancers’ performance begins once we are asked to step off the dais to watch we are told that we are free to wander, to observe the changing perspectives while remembering that we, too, are being observed. We are invited to spin the moving mirrors with our gloved hands, the four sides revealing surprising new perspectives as they turn, at times aligning to present infinite hallways of light, other times revealing our own reflections or those of others who are observing while being unknowingly observed. Hands linked, we wend and wind through the haze around the square formation of ethereally lit mirrored steles occupying the centre of the space until we are led on to the dais to move, play and explore the spaces between the multitude of reflections. The portentous weight of this in-between space reflects Adey’s past involvement with Dark Mofo, and this, together with the donning of white gloves and the theatrical haze blurring the edges of solidity, feel like preparations for a ritual.Ī disembodied voice instructs audience members to find a hand to hold and a light to follow, and performers with handheld white lights guide us into the dark and cavernous interior. Dancers projected in otherworldly light onto great hanging backdrops gaze down upon the arrivals, gesturing in slow-motion, god-like, in a manner reminiscent of a Bill Viola video installation.Ī series of mirrored steles on a dais guard the entrance, like statues guarding a futuristic temple. Photo: Saige Prime / suppliedįront-of-house performer Astrid Pill and some of the dancers greet audience members stepping into the darkened, curtained-off vestibule at the entrance of the Queen’s Theatre, offering soft white gloves to wear. ![]() Shifting Perspectives at the Queen’s Theatre. Shifting Perspectives achieves this in spades, with artistic director Michelle Ryan’s and concept and lighting designer Matthew Adey’s (House of Vnholy) judicious use of shifting light, immersive soundscapes, spinning mirrors and the agencies of its excellent dancers Darcy Carpenter, Jianna Georgiou, Michael Hodyl, Bhodi Hudson, Alexis Luke, Madalene Macera, Michael Noble and Charlie Wilkins. Award-winning Adelaide company Restless Dance Theatre has done this many times over in the light of different themes, through honest and emotive performances by its excellent company of dancers, who are with and without disability. Life can feel somewhat two-dimensional in straitened times, and the arts, in its various forms, can provide the portals needed to experience a more expansive view of the world. Otherwise there are only two dimensions.” “The illusion of depth, created by a frame, the arrangement of shapes on a flat surface. ![]() ![]() “What I need is perspective,” says Offred, in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. ![]()
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