Leading them a merry dance

Sydney Dance Company rehearses under the exacting gaze of Rafael Bonachela. Photo / Peter Greig

Sydney Dance Company’s artistic director Rafael Bonachela was a controversial appointment but he has turned its ailing fortunes around. He talks to Bernadette Rae

Six years after Rafael Bonachela, passionate, hugely talented, socially voluble and Spanish, took over the helm of the once beleaguered Sydney Dance Company, Auckland will have the opportunity to see his revamped and revitalised troupe of dancers in their internationally acclaimed tour de force, 2 One Another.

A very personal work, it examines relationships from several angles. The "2" in the title refers to couples, the "one" to the individual and "another" stands for the group as a whole.

"We were creating the work in 2011 and 2012," Bonachela says, "so I had been with the company for a while. It is a work totally dedicated to the ensemble of dancers and it was inspired by them, and their relationships and connections. We spend a lot of time together here, five days a week and on tours of nine weeks, so we got to know each other very well. And the work reflects the intimacy and sometimes loneliness, the madness and the power of the group. It also presents a microcosm of wider society."

Bonachela claims he is forever inspired by the world around him: the parties he attends almost every night of the week, the social media in which he is an active participant, by music, of course and, often, by poetry.

A young Sydney poet, Sam Webster, played a significant role in the creation of 2 One Another.

"I just loved his work. It is so fresh and of the moment," Bonachela says.

"So he came into the studio for two or three weeks and just wrote and wrote. Then there was an interaction between his words and the dancers, and the poetry was also inspirational in the composing of the music, by Nick Wales."

Some of Webster's words are spoken and intertwined through the finished performance.

"It is not a narrative work at all," says Bonachela, "but it is very beautiful and open and a very emotional journey."

It is also frequently described as spectacular and a "visual feast for the audience", with a subtly synchronised backdrop of pulsing LED lights, designed by Tony Assness, linking to the sound and movement on stage. Assness also designed the striking costumes.

Sydney Dance Company was once a regular highlight of Auckland's dance calendar, but this is its first visit in more than a decade.

"The company has a beautiful history," Bonachela says.

But, by 2007, it had lost its celebrated shine and was sinking under the weight of on-going financial difficulties. Exhausted by a protracted funding war with the federal government, its brilliant and popular founders, Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon, finally bailed.

A young German-born star of the contemporary dance world, Tanja Liedtke, was appointed as Murphy's replacement. But just before she was due to take up the post she was killed in a tragic early morning accident involving a rubbish truck.

Bonachela's subsequent appointment caused more than a little consternation among the fans of Murphy's more lyrical and narrative choreographic style. Bonachela was already known as a "movement junkie", a creator of abstract and intensely physical works -- and for his successful involvement with the dance spectaculars of a series of pop stars, including Kylie Minogue, which was not seen as a positive in some quarters.

But Bonachela, who was a friend of Liedtke from their shared days at the Rambert dance company in London, was encouraged by her partner to accept.

Then, unfazed by controversy, ever-enthusiastic and a fast mover out of the blocks, he promptly fired seven of the company's existing dancers.

But his judgment has proved to be correct.

The six years of his tenure so far have brought six years of outstanding success: a doubling of audience numbers, sell-out shows, critical acclaim at home and abroad, and an instant financial turnaround.

Bonachela has recently signed a contract that will see him in command for the next six years and for the company's important 50-year celebrations in 2019.

Performance
What: Sydney Dance Company in 2 One Another
Where and when: Aotea Centre, November 13-15 at 7.30pm; Saturday matinee at 2.30pm