Celebrating the landmark 60th anniversary year of The Australian Ballet, dynamic double bill Identity pairs the creative collaboration of The Hum with the magical memories of Paragon.

Enjoying their Melbourne premiere seasons, The Hum and Paragon are unique pieces, both presented as rather lavish productions. As the ultimate luxury, each work has their own newly commissioned score. Helmed by maestro Nicolette Fraillon, Orchestra Victoria performs the new music with the same bright confidence they bring to well established pieces.

Instantly making a personal connection with the audience, The Hum begins with its full company standing casually down stage, making amiable eye contact with the house. The piece returns to that bond at its conclusion, the dancers visibly offering themselves forward, with the stage lights turned around to illuminate the audience. 

The collaborative work features six members of Australian Dance Theatre and 13 from The Australian Ballet, the 19 dancers performing as a proudly unified ensemble.  

Conveying the sense of its title in the constant motion of dancers, sets, projection, and lighting, The Hum maintains a steady strum of movement, continually creating interest with the ever changing stage picture. Narrative-free, the work is a contemplative abstraction of the ongoing connection between music, people and the land.

Director Daniel Riley generously attributes choreography to himself in collaboration with the cast. There is the strong feel of watching a community together on stage. The choreography makes no distinction based on gender, with duos and groups of all compositions. There is an air of excitement and unpredictability in the dance, with many sequences taking flight in a way that makes them seem spontaneous and genuinely organic. In the all too rare moments where all 19 dance as one, the result is thrilling. 

Composer Deborah Cheetham Fraillon delivers an absorbing composition to accompany The Hum. Making confident use of the full complement of Orchestra Victoria, Cheetham Fraillon’s music is a pleasure to hear and is a significant artistic achievement in its own right.

Set and lighting design by Matthew Adey suggests a stylised outback landscape, with the beating sun represented by a circular screen bearing an animated abstract projection, movable set pieces of rocky outcrops, and a vivid rear stripe of neon conjuring the outline of a distant mountain range. 

Costume designer Annette Sax provides relaxed outfits in subtle shades of white, grey, and purple. Adornments by Priscilla Reid-Loynes, Sarah Loynes complete the picture as the work progresses. 

An ingenious idea, beautifully executed, Paragon is a dreamy reflection on 60 glorious years of The Australian Ballet. 

Choreographer Alice Topp perfectly balances joyous nostalgia with truly lovely dance. A dozen returning alumni seamlessly join present company members to form couples and ensembles with all the glamour of a grand gala. The hour-long piece is generously constructed and yet feels like it is over far too soon, such is the pleasure of enjoying this precious mix of dancers past and present. 

History is already in the air when the curtain switches at interval to the beloved State Theatre lyrebird and wattle house curtain. At rise, current company elder statesman Adam Bull begins his final opening night as a Principal Artist by carrying the history of the company on his shoulders in the form of a massive sheath of white fabric upon which is projected the first of many cherished memories. 

The fabric is elegantly gathered and focus falls on eight upstage panels, which roll into various positions and combinations as they carry further projected images throughout the ten distinct sequences created by Topp. Full credit to audio visual editor Arlo Dean Cook for the quality and variety of the projections. The elegantly simple set and lighting design by Jon Buswell allow the focus to stay clearly on the dancers and the shared memories.

Working with costume designer Aleisa Jelbart, Topp gently pays homage to various iconic looks and moments of The Australian Ballet’s history without ever fully recreating any specific items. The well-judged result is a free-flowing fountain of reminders, reminiscences, and remembrances.

Highlights of Paragon include all-female sequence “Glow,” which blessedly returns Julie da Costa to downstage centre. Subsequent all-male item ‘Quake” allows David McAllister to soar back into the spotlight. 

Bull and Fiona Tonkin dance achingly tender pas de deux “Saudade.” Bull returns with fellow principal artist Amber Scott for spectacular pas de deux “Seasons” before ceding the stage to returning legends Stephen Heathcote and Kirsty Martin for “Lake.”

Additional guest alumni gracing Paragon with their treasured experience and talent are Simon Dow, Lucinda Dunn, Paul Knobloch, Sarah Peace, Leanne Stojmenov, and Jessica Thompson.

In a sweetly sentimental final arrangement, the upstage panels turn to create a rehearsal room, the combination of talent on stage sure to bring a sentimental tear to the eye of long term balletomanes.

Paragon has its own original score, by composer Christoper Gordon. Although the length of the overture is a tad indulgent, the instantly accessible music is wonderful to hear, deftly alternating between vibrant playfulness and soulful melancholy.

While The Hum is a noble and entertaining piece in its own right, Paragon is the clear highlight of Identity, graced with a once-in-a-lifetime all-star cast and carrying such emotion as it honours and commemorates the company we all love. 

Identity plays at State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne until 24 June 2023. For tickets, click here. 

The Melbourne cast list for Identity can be read online.

Photos: Daniel Boud