If choices govern who we are then these 44 dancers aged 14 to 23 have made the first one, to participate. They have come to QL2 from all areas of the ACT and surrounding regions, including Wagga Wagga and the Blue Mountains. The resulting exploration and interrogation of choice is Select Option a two-act dance performance performed by QL2 at the Playhouse.

Artistically directed by Ruth Osbourne in collaboration with associate directors Brian Lucas and Liz Lea and visiting artists Reed Luplau and Marco Panzic, the Quantum Leap ensemble have created a compelling and balanced examination of the powerful governing and at times paralysing force of choice.

The Playhouses auditorium goes dark, the empty stage is blue and lit from the side, it fills with bodies from all directions. They come together, look out at the audience, and hold up a card. What choice do you make with the cards that are dealt to you?

Act 1 starts with Make a Choice. It has the familiar feel of Osbourne’s bold and articulate choreographic statements: beautifully executed jerking movements coupled with smooth and gently sweeping bodies across the stage: dancers moving repeatedly together and then in opposition. I imagine this reflects the very differing perspectives encountered in the first stages of the collaborative process.

Brian Lucas’s pieces Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff and Sweat the Small Stuff are a study in detail and mesmerising in execution. Every small movement is imbued with meaning, like watching the hands of an Indian dancer knowing that each twitch of a finger and every tiny shift in the placement of a foot is an important part of the grand narrative.

I know it’s a stereotype but I am always a little worried when dancers speak, as the voice often gets lost in the movement and falls into the ether between the stage and the audience. However, Lucas, Lea and Osbourne have worked hard with the young dancers on projection and naturalism and I heard every word. Each of the dancers’ engagement with technique was equally balanced with the delivery of an excellent vocal narrative.

Lea’s Select Red examines the ‘what if’ factor and the influence that others and their actions can have. What if there was no more chocolate? What if the drought keeps going? What if there’s a gun? Sometimes it doesn’t matter what we do, how we prepare, how we anticipate—there are times when we have little or no influence over the outcome. Again it’s the detail in the work that got me—a move across the floor, an intimate moment shared between two people, a facial expression or a group tilt.

Lea and Lucas have an extraordinary ability to tell stories through movement that displays thoughts and feelings for the audience. Lucas in particular choreographs his dancers to weave an emotive and empathetic narrative about decision making.

The work is beautifully matched with composer Nicholas Ng’s evocative soundtrack. Voices and music shift from lilt to solid beat—vocalists speak ‘Ta Ka Re’ as steady and constant as a pulse, at once stressed and then relaxed, always underpinning the complex examination on the stage.

Panzic and Luplau choreographed five pieces around five cast members’ engagement with choice. These make up the second half—Transform. Each piece examines choices in the context that though we appear the same, have similar thoughts and all go through the same process, it’s the impact of individual perspectives and choices that make us who we are. They are intimate and resounding pieces.

Panzic and Luplau have ensured that the dancer’s voices are heard and responded to. Bearcage Media captured the young dancer’s stories, their humour, frustration and quirkiness. Each dancer talks to the camera about how choice affects them, the influence of others, the growing number of forms, others’ expectations and rising to meet them, what they believe their future brings, and their approach to negotiating it. Each then stands amongst their peers to negotiate their choices physically. We can think all we want it’s what we do that transforms us and our little corner of the world.

This half is fast and fun and Ventura’s music is a perfect fit. The dancers seemed comfortable yet energised and very eager to ensure their stories breach the gap between stage and audience. It worked and so to those performers who broke the circle of magic that had been so carefully constructed to see the audience reaction, don’t worry about it—just do it! Let us feel how you move in a blur of colour and light, sliding, jumping and being lifted, rolled, pushed or assisted into and out of the light, across, onto and off the stage. You negotiated the space with commendable ease and by employing multiple dance forms—it was great.

Luplau and Panzic’s choreography is hard and demanding and I felt at times that the few moments of stillness were a relief for some of the cast. I am not a dancer but I think when you stop and the dance is still going that’s when you need to be working the hardest.

Martinsen’s costumes were very clever, particularly under the lights. The colour and drape of cloth can make such a difference to how you view something or someone and can lift the experience. The dancers, when seen in conjunction with Bearcage’s virtual set: a building, a fertile tree, a face, whatever the image, it’s a landscape in construction—like a life being lived or choices being made.

I had the feeling that the young people on the stage are discovering and articulating that all that comes from growing up is not always so great. Life is fraught with issues and moments that require negotiation, articulation and perhaps a ready acceptance for not always getting it right. For the record you got this right.

Credits