Sydney Festival Review: Vortex Temporum

A scene from Vortex Temporum performed during the 2016 Sydney Festival Photo: Jamie Williams

Vortex Temporum, at Carriageworks until January 18 as part of the Sydney Festival, is brilliant in the same way as an ingenuous mathematical formula.

Everything about the work, which sets out to explore sound and time, is circular – from the concentric circles that cover the stage floor to the movements of the dancers. Even the piano does a complete round of the massive Bay 17 floor space, to a slow count.

Dancers from De Keersmaeker’s company Rosas Photo: Jamie Williams

This Australian exclusive is a major recent work from innovative Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and her dance company Rosas, founded in 1983 with the creation of the work Rosas danst Rosas.

Vortex Temporum is set to a score of the same name by French composer Gérard Grisey, played by contemporary music ensemble Ictus, six instrumentalists (flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano), and conductor Georges-Elie Octors.

This complex work interprets Grisey’s music giving it a visual component that is in constant flux.

The dancers and musicians share the stage in a direct relationship that has each dancer translating the sounds of a particular instrument into movement, each linked to one of the six musicians, although De Keersmaeker has indicated that seven dancers are needed because “two dancers correspond to the two hands of the extremely virtuosic piano part”.

The overall aim is to turn “time into something tangible by listening to how sound, as a physical phenomenon, behaves in space”.

The piano has a central, and mobile, role in Vortex Temporum Photo: Jamie Williams

The music propels the movement as dancers come together and move apart in ever evolving widening and retracting circles in perfect connection to the music. These moves are punctuated by intermittent silences.

The lighting is also an important part of the performance with light and dark distinguishing separate sections until the last ray of light fades on the conductor, Georges-Elie Octors. Then total dark.

This is an esoteric conceptual work that is intellectually intriguing and challenges its audience while simultaneously creating an almost meditative effect.

Vortex Temporum is in Bay 17, Carriageworks, until January 18. Book online or call Sydney Festival 0n 1300 856 876.