MATRIX MIXES CULTURES

Twenty dancers from Australia and China united on stage last night at QPAC, performing as one ensemble for a breath-taking contemporary dance performance, Matrix.

Consisting of two new dance pieces by two different choreographers, the collaboration between Expressions Dance Company and China’s BeijingDance/LDTX proved that dance has no language or cultural barriers.

Multi award-winning Australian choreographer Stephanie Lake created the first of the two pieces, Auto Cannibal. With superb tableaus that are still for a moment before moving as a slow, fluid body, a story is told of recycling. As each of the dancers break free one by one, they display grace and strength, with every ripple of a muscle magnified under the stage lights.

Choreographed by Chinese artist MA Bo, Encircling Voyage explores the meaning of life from birth to death. Using mirrored bench seats as props in this second piece, the dancers position themselves with the kind of precision that can only come from a lifetime commitment to discipline.

The BeijingDance/LDTX dancers were supernaturally in tune with each other, executing every bodily movement — flick of the hair, blink of the eyes, gaping of the mouth — as if they had all started dancing in the same womb together at the same time.

A special mention goes to Matrix’s lighting design by Joy Chen, who accentuated mood changes with perfectly paired colour-washes and spots.

Matrix is a must-see for lovers of contemporary dance and it’s on at QPAC until 16 November 2019.