GROUND CONTROL

DANCE

13 Oct

Recently landed: Ground Control

Gracia’s written response to DanceX, Part One, presented by The Australian Ballet, especially for Fjord Review.

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Moss Te Ururangi Patterson describes his choreographic process having a conversation with other elements. As he describes pushing himself under the waves, and a feeling of meditative, buoyancy as he floated in space, the impression of light beneath the water was paramount. And it is light which features in his work, Te Ao Mārama, performed by members of Royal New Zealand Ballet, who surge forward, with their arms overhead. Te Ao Mārama was originally created as part of Lightscapes 2023, to celebrate the company’s 70th anniversary, but equally the opening night of part one of DanceX at Arts Centre Melbourne seems an ideal position to commence: in a conversation with coming into the light, into consciousness, of becoming aware of something within that was perhaps previously undetected or unrecognised.

To Patterson, the movement within Te Ao Mārama is also having “a conversation with the oro, or the vibrations that are in a space . . . [exploring] the idea of a wānanga, finding ways to connect.”[i] Something which is typified when the dancers are held in shafts of light and elsewhere when they encircle a central figure, and lay their palms around his face. Rotating the kaleidoscope, and beginning as if already mid swing, the light, bright pirouettes of the Australian Ballet and the Australian Ballet School’s Allegro Brillante by George Balanchine follows. Swept along by Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 3, the contrast between Te Ao Mārama and Allegro Brillante reminds me of why I love short stories and the vibrational crossover between each tale. Both lyrical and precise, yet in a distinct manner. Both what such a night needs.

[i] Moss Te Ururangi Patterson (transcribed from interview), Royal New Zealand Ballet’s YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfoW3jr6WOw, accessed 9th October, 2025.