Sydney Dance Company: Impermanence | Forever & Ever
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Date
28.8-30.8.2025
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Duration
2 H 10 min (inc. intermission)
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Venue
Erkko Hall
Show times
Thu 28.8. at 18.00
Fri 29.8. at 18.00
Sat 30.8. at 13.00
Sat 30.8. at 18.30
In Addition
Artist Talk on Thu 28 August after the performance. The discussion will feature choreographer Rafael Bonachela and Johanna Freundlich, Artistic Director of Helsinki Festival.
Credits
Impermanence
Choreographer: Rafael Bonachela
Composer: Bryce Dessner
Music performed by the Australian String Quartet
Music includes Anohni’s song Another World
Lighting Designer: Damien Cooper
Set Designer: David Fleischer
Costume Designer: Aleisa Jelbart
Australian String Quartet
Dale Barltrop, Violin I
Francesca Hiew, Violin II
Christopher Cartlidge, Viola
Michael Dahlenburg, Cello
Bryce Dessner’s music composition Impermanence is commissioned by the Australian String Quartet and Sydney Dance Company. This commission has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body.
Forever & Ever
Choreography: Antony Hamilton
Music: Julian Hamilton
Costume Design: Paula Levis
Lighting Design: Ben Cisterne
In cooperation with:
Jane ja Aatos Erkon säätiö
Introduction
Australia’s leading contemporary dance company, Sydney Dance Company, brings two works by top choreographers to Helsinki Festival.
After a sell-out Sydney world-premiere season in 2022, Rafael Bonachela’s Impermanence is “arguably the single best piece created by and for an Australian dance company for many years” (Adelaide Advertiser). A visceral and thrilling exploration of the juxtaposition of beauty and devastation, this full-length work features a moving score full of emotional power from Grammy Award- winning composer Bryce Dessner.
Best known as a founder of American rock band The National and for his film scores for The Revenant and The Two Popes, Dessner was initially inspired by the tragedy of the Australian bush fires and the Notre-Dame fire in Paris. Sydney Dance Company’s “awe- inspiring” (In Daily) ensemble is joined live on stage by the Australian String Quartet. This is epic, driven performance that packs an emotional punch.
When COVID-19 struck in March 2020, Impermanence was only four days from its world premiere and opening night. As the impact of the pandemic became apparent, performances were cancelled and artists sent into lockdown. Life, and recovery, were on hold, but the collaboration persevered. The ASQ recorded the compositions in lockdown, the dancers rehearsed in isolation, and with the added poignancy of a pandemic that has exposed so many vulnerabilities and changed us all at a profound level, Impermanence returned to the stage.
Experience the power of dance and music performed live together, laden with meaning, fleeting and vulnerable, and from devastation find energy, urgency, radiance and hope.
Originally premiering in 2018 and returning for a smash-hit season in 2023, Antony Hamilton’s Helpmann Award-winning Forever & Ever “lays siege to the senses with a mighty display of shock and awe” (The Australian).
Set to a sonically stimulating score by The Presets’ Julian Hamilton, Forever & Ever fuses together a killer mix of dance, techno, high fashion and vivid lighting to hypnotic effect. Exploring ideas of order, chaos, popular culture and human behaviour, this boundary-pushing work is a bold and thrilling theatrical experience that is not to be missed.
Biographies
Sydney Dance Company
For more than five decades, Sydney Dance Company has been an internationally acclaimed pioneer of contemporary dance. Under the artistic direction of Rafael Bonachela, the 17-dancer ensemble is known for its powerful performances and for bringing Australian art to the world stage. Alongside Bonachela’s works, the repertoire has featured pieces by leading choreographers such as Alexander Ekman and Melanie Lane, as well as collaborations with the Sydney Festival and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. The company also runs Australia’s largest public dance programme and an extensive education network that supports dancers at all stages of their careers.
Rafael Bonachela
Rafael Bonachela is a Spanish-born choreographer and artistic director who has built an international career in contemporary dance and across multiple art forms. He first gained recognition at Rambert Dance Company in London and has been Artistic Director of Sydney Dance Company since 2009. Bonachela is known for his powerful, emotional style, focusing on pure movement. He has collaborated with numerous composers, musicians, fashion designers and visual artists, and is widely recognised as pop icon Kylie Minogue’s trusted choreographer. In 2022, Cartier named him a brand ambassador for his artistic talent and his dedication to supporting emerging artists.
Antony Hamilton
Antony Hamilton is an Australian choreographer and one of the Artistic Directors of the boundary-pushing dance company Chunky Move. He is celebrated for seamlessly integrating choreography, sound and visual design – creating entirely new worlds within his performances. Hamilton has received numerous prestigious grants, including from Bangarra Dance Theatre, the Tanja Liedtke Foundation and the Australia Council for the Arts. He has served as Residency Director at Lucy Guerin Inc, Guest Curator at the National Gallery of Victoria, and as an international artist-in-residence in Toronto. His work has been honoured with multiple Helpmann and Green Room Awards, as well as New York’s Bessie Award. With Chunky Move, he has created several major works – including Token Armies, Yung Lung and Rewards for the Tribe – while also shaping programming to support choreographers and local artists.