Dance/ Alter, Liz Lea Creates. At  Belco Arts, November 7. Reviewed by SAMARA PURNELL.

Exquisite. Beautiful. Meditative. Composed.

These are some of the first descriptions that come to mind on seeing Liz Lea’s production of Alter.

As part of the BOLD Festival, also created and curated by Lea, Alter brings together a small group of dancers from Australia and Malaysia who worked collaboratively with Lea and creative technologists Low Zi Xiang and Steve Voon, Maitree House in Penang and Avventura in Singapore to create this interactive, virtual and immersive experience for dancers and audience alike.

Alter consisted of two connected but separate works. In 3, dancers Jareen Wee, Luvenia Kalia and Aida Redza delicately and subtly represented phases of life, emotion and nature.

Using intricate hand gestures, and smooth, sweeping, tai chi-style movements where everything was contained, intentional, precise, traditional Malaysian inspired choreography interacted with technology as behind the dancers, projections were displayed.

Activated by sensors on the stage, the imagery began with the bottom half of the screen pouring white light, like a waterfall. Sparks and splashes jumped above it like fireworks, shooting stars or a fountain, emanating from the movement from the dancers below. It also gave the appearance of an aura, an energy, radiating from each woman.

Projected white lines moved in the way streamers do in the wind as dancers crossed the stage, to become a frenetically tangled ball for more energetic passages of dance or emotion. Splashes of red appear in a corner of the screen and spread, creating rocks, mountains, blood – many things may come to mind, subtly implied. At other times the lines appear like brush strokes or calligraphy, with the ink dispersing like paint in water.

When the dancers were together, whilst mesmerising, perfect synchronicity was not always there for maximum impact of this choreography. Each dancer also performed a solo, which was captivating and strikingly beautiful – from each dancer’s face and hands to their grace and emotion.

Wee created shadows projected on to a full-moon spotlight. Kalia’s projections looked like the vertebrae of animals, on an aqua-blue screen and Redza danced a dance of sorrow, with the animations reverting back to the opening ones, only this time with dark ochre colours streaming down – dark red-brown like blood, earth, oil spurting from the ground. The soundscape primarily composed of soothing music, strings and some vocal sounds also included tribal drumming and the occasional sharp exhalation of breath. These passages were performed with grace and a feminine energy, serene yet emotional enough to move some to tears.

Katie Senior and Lim Yu En, both experienced dancers with Down syndrome, had created their “avatars” by wearing motion capture suits, filmed prior to the show and were joined by Mia Rashid, Wee and Redza for Virtual View.

Rashid gently led the dance, which very much echoed the first work in its choreographic style, music and with all the dancers in black costumes. The idea was to create a form with freedom from any perceived constraints or limitations. The delicately playful exchange that took place between Senior’s gorgeous fluid watercolour figure that had a japanese style to it and her live dancing, again moved some to tears. Yu En’s metallic, sharper edged form was accompanied by more electronic sounds.

Although this imagery projected a version of self and energy and created a new dimension of interaction between the dancers themselves and with the VR media, just as much joy was sparked from watching the reverence of the ensemble’s interactions and the live dancing, especially that of Yu En.

The intended theme of Dissent (the theme of the umbrella Craft + Design Canberra Festival) could only be interpreted as a push-back on limitations of any kind. Ironically, Alter seemed more an extension of possibility, reality and self and a demonstration of interconnectedness – of energies, environment and each other. Age, ability, live performance and VR merged seamlessly.

The second work was short and when it ended without much warning, it left a desire for it to continue longer. The dancers then invited a couple of audience members to move around the stage and activate the sensors.

Alter was billed as “a beautiful offering” and it really was just that.

Unexpectedly emotional, serene, playful yet elegant.

Lea is hoping to tour this production. It deserves to be enjoyed by many more audiences.

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