★★★★★
Coming into full bloom this Adelaide Festival is Australian Dance Theatre’s latest work, Faraway. It is unsettling and evocative, and has you utterly transfixed in a world of visceral fantasy. The work asks the question: where do our collective dreams and nightmares take us?
Under the Artistic Director of Australian Dance Theatre, Daniel Riley, Faraway is choreographed by award-winning choreographer and director Jenni Large. In 2022, Large won the Keir Choreographic People’s Choice Award for her work Wet Hard, which she then extended into the acclaimed Wet Hard Long, which received a Green Room nomination for Most Outstanding Visual Design.
Alongside Large on the choreography is Brianna Kell, dancer, choreographer and Artistic Associate of Australian Dance Theatre.
The work is an exploration of the form and function of fantasy itself, drawing parallels between fairy tales and fetish: two methods of escapism and liberation which help us process the world around us. This feeling of escapism strikes the moment the show begins; all staging elements instantly stimulating the audience’s visual and aural senses.
The stage is grey and bare, yet hanging from the ceiling are black knotted ropes, resembling to me, some form of cursed jungle. The sound design by Anna Whitaker begins to pierce, initially industrial and harsh. Centre stage is dancer Zachary Lopez, hypnotizingly strumming along on a whimsical-looking instrument, luring the audience in further.
Then, the full cast of dancers appear: Joshua Doctor, Macon Escobal Riley, Yilin Kong, Karra Nam, Patrick O’Luanaigh and Zoe Wozniak. They are donned in Meg Wilson’s costume designs, a mix of black, burlesque-style corsets or extravagant robes of the most unique design.
Large’s choreography is deliberately slow, grounded and writhing in the first half. The dancers strikingly lock eyes with the audience members, tempting and inviting. The ropes are played with, adding more visual movement to the stage as they are swung across the space.
As the work builds, their movements become animalistic, raw and athletic. They move through positions and shapes with their bodies that are unconventional, further plunging the audience into this world where primal urges are acted upon.
Halfway through the work, the dancers have us arrive at a ‘skipping rope’ section. I thought this was such a clever exploration of how raw sound is used to create rhythm and movement.
Here you could hear the dancers communicating, the rhythm of the rope smacking the floor adding further pace and intensity to the scene. Like the audience, it appeared that the dancers themselves were now in the trance.
A powerful trio section between Karra, Zoe and Yillin is a visceral exploration of female urges and connection. They move from separate unison to close proximity, touching and rolling over each other.
By the end, the dancers strip themselves to their bare bodysuits, now appearing calm and hypnotised. Their outward intense stares still powerfully have the audience anticipating their next move. I don’t want to spoil how the work ends, but Large’s choreographic choice is thoroughly impactful.
Alex Berlage’s lighting design perfectly matches the hazy, dream-like world. Accented flashes of yellow and green are used to correspond with stark moments of action. These moments correspond with the sound design, clearly showing the amount of careful consideration in the technical elements in complementing the movement and storytelling.
What Whitaker also does expertly is weave in sounds of the voice throughout the piece, creating truly striking and unsettling noise, true to the fantasy themes.
Australian Dance Theatre continues to push the limits of contemporary dance in terms of movement and theme. Faraway lends itself to individual audience interpretation, but ultimately is an escape into a universe that exists when an audience’s deepest imaginations are stimulated.
Faraway is presented by Australian Dance Theatre and runs to 1 March as part of the Adelaide Festival. Odeon Theatre, 57a Queen Street Norwood SA 5067.
Tickets: https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/whats-on/season-2026/faraway
Website: https://www.adt.org.au/our-work/faraway
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/ausdancetheatre/
Photo credits: Jonathan VDK
