Stephanie Lake Company’s The Chronicles is a frenetic daring performance pushing the limits of contemporary dance. Twelve dancers weave their way through birth, death, country, technology and spirituality with choreography that is so complex and precise, viewers’ jaws literally dropped and the standing ovation at the end, didn’t seem like enough gratitude.
Starting with a dancer unfurling from the foetal position dressed in neutral natural tones, the intensity of the music sets in and a crew of eleven dancers join to create a dance that escalates with feelings of joy, fervour and excitement. With a variety of movements not often seen and body parts often neglected, Lake has ensured every dancer enjoys the spotlight and every aspect of their entire body is showcased. The agility, physicality and grace of each dancer is drawn out by Lake who has carefully chosen the pairings, the stage positioning and the rotating hierarchy – all beautifully complemented by the lighting (Bosco Shaw), set (Charles Davis) and costumes (Paula Levis) and Robin Fox’s energetic score.
Lake has used the concept of a “chronicle”, that usually refers to a written work to document a sequence of events and applied it to contemporary dance to document our existence on the planet. A bewilderingly complex choreography of writhing and frenetic raw movements, chronicle our journey as humans from birth to death and the challenges and triumphs in between. No easy feat, but Lake has approached the challenge with the acumen of a gifted mathematician. Each chronicle is a segment with its own voice and can be viewed independently (just as classical musician structures their movements), and when pieced together, the narrative, is not linear but a haphazard loop with layers and nuances, a reflection of our world and the humans within it.
The performance is enhanced by the addition of the Yarra Voices, a children’s choir holding lanterns are perched above the stage amongst blades of grass in the second segment. Their eerie heavenly voices are a stark contrast to earthen dancers below them. As we cycle through the stages of life with original dance moves like frantic group neck scratching, baby rocking, long hair covering a face while intensely shaking on the ground and a pillow fight with hay that ends with a massive pile hay lumped onto one the dancers, the show has travelled from one to many, earth to heaven, nature to technology and birth to death. The finale is Oliver Mann singing Forever Young, which wraps up Chronicles’ message that grief, turbulence and chaos must travel with our positive outlook if we are to truly experience life.
The Chronicles is a superb cacophony of beautifully crafted contemporary dance with outstanding physicality shown by all its dancers. Lake has transcended to another world and thankfully we have all been invited to travel with her.
Tickets and more information available here:
https://2025.rising.melbourne/program/the-chronicles
Image: Daniel Boud