Sydney Dance Company opens Impermanence at Adelaide Festival
Devastation of communities in the Australian bushfires was among motivations for Sydney Dance Company’s work Impermanence.
Adelaide Festival
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The fleeting nature of life, iconic structures and even the landscape inspired Impermanence, the latest work from Sydney Dance Company.
“The philosophical concept of change made me think on the ephemeral, the fleeting, things that exist only in a moment and are then transformed,” said the company’s artistic director Rafael Bonachela.
Devastation of regional communities in the 2019-20 Australian bushfires, and the earlier destruction by fire of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, also deeply moved the work’s composer, Bryce Dessner from US rock band The National.
“Bryce was deep in the process of writing the music when the bushfires in Australia reached catastrophic levels,” Bonachela said.
“He was profoundly moved; he had been here, he had met the dancers, and there was a genuine personal connection for him.”
The Australian String Quartet is performing Dessner’s score live on stage with the dancers as part of this year’s Adelaide Festival.
Impermanence was originally meant to be staged as part of Sydney double-bill which was cancelled just days before its scheduled premiere last year because of COVID.
Bonachela and Dessner have expanded the piece into a full-length work which opens at the Festival Theatre on Wednesday night, and will be performed again Thursday at 12.30pm and 8.30pm. Book at BASS.
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