Touch Compass celebrates its 10th anniversary with retrospective and new pieces. Photo / Martin Sykes
It is a rare contemporary dance company that survives a decade in this land, in these strictly by-project funded times. And rare is the individual who conceives, sustains and drives forward a vision as challenging as "integrated" dance. But Catherine Chappell can.
Touch Compass also proves its artistic
integrity in this anniversary programme, showcasing a significant body of work from the past 10 years with three live pieces and three short films that look every bit as ravishing now as they did when new.
Films Union, Remotely Driven and The Picnic are pure nostalgia. Union immortalises the relationship between three-legged dog Boiski and his one-legged man, Tim Turner, with images, poetry and sign language creating its own dance. Remotely Driven is a fantasia of colour, movement, life and humour and The Picnic out-Fellinis Fellini in a glorious bachanal across North Head.
Retrospective works are Suzanne Cowan's mythical battle of the gods, Hephaestus and Ares, deeply powerful with Dan King and TC newcomer Jeremy Poi; Malia Johnston's intriguing study of the mechanics of "dissed" ability, with gorgeous Julia Milsom in command; and the seminal TC piece, Lusi's Eden, starring founding member of the company, Lusi Faiva.
The latter is a 30-minute long explosion of choreographed glee that fills the second half of the programme with colour, laughter and hope. Hearts still fly with Faiva as she triumphs over her previously desolate world.
Two new works add extra spice.
Trace Map celebrates the company's aerial traditions and another of its favourite founding members, with the inimitable Jesse Jackson-Steele centre stage.
The full company of nine dancers, including Chappell, roll, spin, walk and fly through horizontal, vertical and very differently perceived space, with some sequences, like Chappell's tender duet moments with Jackson-Steele, recalling special works gone by.
Then there is Amir-Spinnaret, an exercise in improvisation, an important modus operandi of the company, scored by Felicity Molloy, in which dancers cross and recross the stage, "on their own journey".
Touch Compass' 10-year journey has been truly remarkable.
