‘SITU-8: CITY’, STRUT Dance and Tura New Music •
Liberty Theatre, 1 November 2022 •

The resplendent Liberty Theatre in Barrack Street opened in 1954 to feature mostly European arthouse films, but closed in the 90s, left to languish like a fallen screen idol.  Then along came STRUT Dance. Looking for a suitable site for “SITU-8: CITY”, the company received permission to open the building to the imagination of eight groups of 10 dancers. 

Curated by Sofie Burgoyne and Timothy Green (assisted by Ashleigh White), this is the eighth annual collaboration between STRUT Dance and Tura New Music, with a program created for a specific site. The dancers’ brief was to view a key element of a film, contemplate the world they want to live in, now and in the future, and devise a work in collaboration with nine Tura artists.  

With its lingering history and memories, this maze-like vintage building must be manna for artists. For the audience, it is easy to imagine the glamorous patrons adorned with diamonds and pearls sweeping down beautiful staircases into their seats, such was the lure of cinema in the 50s. And, although the walls are now bare or graffitied, the floors hard stone and the stairs uncarpeted, their nakedness is mitigated by the dancers’ panache and adornments.

The first of the eight pieces, Demake/Demaster, by Sarah Aiken with composition by Alice Humphries, is an apt and clever skit on entering, literally, the cinematic screen. Aiken seemingly slips her arms, legs and torso into those of figures, including aliens, on two TV screens. Well-known film frames, such as Rita Hayworth shimmying in her bejewelled dress in Gilda, appear on the screens. It takes some doing to body-sync in this way and although not perfect, it is well executed and amusing to watch.

The assorted pieces may have different generational appeal, as my younger companion is less beguiled with one of my favourites as a film noir fan.  In The Melody Haunts My Reverie, Antonio Rinaldi and Celina Hage perform in the lofty VIP room to a composition by Eduardo Cossio. It apes the thousands of times the loud ring of the telephone caused silent terror in film noir. Rinaldi moves from telephone to telephone, answering in different voices and exclamations, while intermittently caressing the hypnotised Hage. She later performs captivatingly and dramatically below Rinaldi, sporting a sinister white mask.

However, we both love SS Bodach, by Sam Coren, composition by Louis Frere-Harvey. Two aliens (Georgie Van Gils and Zendra Giraudo) dressed in black and silver, with beaded head-lighting and X-ray spines, slowly come together in a black-coated spaceship. Their robotic intertwining is infused with a humorous sweetness in the hands of the dramatically cogent performers.

To capture the other five well-performed features, the audience, rather like lemmings, walk up and down stairs into different parts of the building, so that occasionally it is too crowded to see properly. Perhaps a little more ushering in different directions would help. 

The last show, Mercury Bones, by Olivia Hendry and Kimberley Parkin, with live performance by Parkin, David Stewart and Nonie Trainer, suffers from too much information. Less is often more, even if the topic is vast – in this case, the complex relations with our own bodies – it pays to be more succinct. The purport of the dancer is not clear and overshadowed by the busy and incoherent video. 

“SITU-8: CITY” is a fun experience due to both the eye-opening venue and the high-end talents of the STRUT dancers and the Tura musicians. It’s a must-see from several viewpoints.

‘SITU-8: CITY’ is at Liberty Theatre until 11 November 2022.

Pictured top: Sarah Aiken steps into the silver screen in a well-executed performance. Photo: Jed Steele