Heaven touched Earth. God made the laws of physics dance. Result: a visceral quantum leap. The Riverside Theatre audience, in Parramatta, witnessed it.
It was contemporary dance choreographer Amy Campbell’s, LEAP.
For almost an hour and a half, it was as if the chronology of a lifetime love-affair with ground-breaking arts strode the stage. This weather-worn reviewer thrilled to relive the vitality that LEAP hurls like a rocket to the farther reaches of dance.
That bright Saturday, raw bliss became flesh and blood in Parramatta just like, in 1969, the bounds of creativity had overleaped their old tethers in Jim Sharman’s rendition of Hair in Sydney.
At the Riverside, concentrated power spellbound the theatre, like John Bell had done in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui way back in those heady years when hope was fresh and horizons beckoning.
The Riverside, too, saw sheer nerve and brash joy touch the audience like the intimate revelry of A Midsummer Night’s Dream had achieved, decades before, downstairs at the Belvoir.
Throughout LEAP, consummate authority shook the floorboards, and commanding presence reverberated with the same kind of frisky magic that, in years past, the feisty Rosalind had brought to life in As You Like It.
LEAP sparked a cavalcade of exhilarating memories. The show is unique. The genre it celebrates is present-day. The energy, sensibility and creative flair it taps is timeless.
When the show ended, it was as if cutting-edge choreography and world-class dance, worthy of any New York or London stage, inspired the very air with tantalising fragrance, and joie de vivre buoyed every bodily sense.
LEAP was created, directed and choreographed by Amy Campbell.
Concept by Neil Gooding.
Musical supervision by Victoria Falconer-Pritchard.
Dancers: Nevin Connolly, Maikolo Fekiota, Natali Foti, Ashley Goh, Jervis Livelo, Cassandra Merwood, Callum Mooney, Ryan Ophel, Shontaya Smedley, Felicia Stav.
Musicians: Neon Fan, piano; Conrad Hamill, cello; Dora Maria, violin; Neel Shukla, drums.
Lighting and Set Design by Richard Neville.
Costume Design by Mason Browne.
Assistant Choreographer: Elysha Manik.
LEAP travels to Wyong Art House 27-29 April. Then tours NSW and Qld. For details visit www.leaptheshow.com
Photography by Nick Bowers Photography
