Titles are deliberately suggestive; they give you an indication of what’s to come. Continuum, the title of Sydney Dance Company’s latest offering, was appropriate, if not immediately resonant. Continuum features a triple bill of works from choreographers Stephen Page, Tra Mi Dinh and Rafael Bonachela.

Bonachela opened the program with a world premiere titled Spell. The opening tableau was bold; six large fluorescent lighting tubes hung suspended at different angles, creating a sculpture that suggested chaos – the place where incantations reside. Three dancers emerged from the darkness, flitting in and out of the angled lighting, their forms appearing as shadows of the sculpture above. The movement began as a combination of small arm gesticulations, accompanied by virtuosic leg articulations that seemed to pierce the air. The third dancer to appear, Timmy Blankenship, moved as if possessed, his undulating torso a whip, his hands punctuating the dexterous movement of his spine, as if conjuring dark magic.

All too soon, the energy ramped up as the ensemble filled the stage. It was as if the activity harnessed the power of a hurricane – albeit a neatly articulated one, with the choreography marking the air in precise, declarative lines. It is so refreshing to see a contemporary company jump. I have missed aerial work. Of late, contemporary dance has lost some of its joie de vivre in its preoccupation with being grounded. Not so in this section, where the sound of feet making contact with the floor rang out, as the dancers landed after some of the most impressive airborne feats conducted en masse.

Spell closed with a stunning duet featuring dancers Ngaere Jenkins and Sam Winkler, which was set to a haunting cover rendition of I Put a Spell on You by Alice Smith. When I imagined what Bonachela would deliver in Spell, it was this number – where the dancers laid themselves bare in a portrayal of raw emotion. The emotion was clear not so much in facial expressions but in a sequence of micro-falls into and on top of one another, which conveyed the type of human connection that is dangerously addictive. Spellbinding, even.

Somewhere between ten and fourteen by Tra Mi Dinh (photo by Daniel Boud)

After a short pause, Tra Mi Dinh’s piece, Somewhere between ten and fourteen, followed. This work made its debut in the 2023 season of Sydney Dance Company’s annual New Breed program, which offers support and exposure to emerging choreographers. (Past works include Gabrielle Nankivell’s Wildebeest, which premiered in the 2014 New Breed season and was reworked as part of a double bill in 2017, winning Dance Australia’s Critics’ Choice Award for outstanding choreography.)

The curtains rose on Somewhere between ten and fourteen to an ensemble cast dressed in a series of remarkably vivid blue hues, the multiple shades representing the witching hour known as twilight – that magical time when the sun is setting, illuminating the sky with a diffused light. Where Bonachela’s choreography was almost exacting in its execution, Dinh’s Somewhere between ten and fourteen was imbued with a slightly shambolic air. The dancers’ bodies were more relaxed, with movement initiated from the floor and the core; energy diffused to their peripheries in a series of throws, waves, and falls – all enhanced by Aleisa Jelbart’s pedestrian costuming of loose-fitting jeans and tops, embellished with cord tassels.

If Bonachela signified the old guard with his long, neo-classicist lines, Dinh exemplified the emergence of the next generation, calling on shapes and attitudes reflective of street performance, from the stilted forward shuffle made famous by the likes of Michael Jackson to the sideways push of the head-in-hand micro isolations of b-boys and tutters.

However, in Somewhere between ten and fourteen Dinh also pays homage to the break from classical lineage, symbolised by the pristine white sneakers donned by the dancers. Made iconic by American choreographer Twyla Tharp, this trend first appeared in her 1986 work, In the Upper Room. Considered one of the first ‘crossover’ artists, Tharp famously integrated jazz and modern dance elements into her repertoire to create high-octane, quirky works that retained the virtuosity of her classical training. And while Dinh does not yet possess the same level of eclectic idiosyncrasy made famous by the likes of Tharp, there is no doubt that she will.

The Continuum bill was rounded out by choreographer Stephen Page’s Unungkati Yantatja – one with the other. It marks a full circle for Page, who choreographed Mooggrah for Sydney Dance Company in 1991 as part of The Shakespeare Dances, while still a dancer in the company.

Collaborating with renowned musician William Barton and longtime collaborators – costume designer Jennifer Irwin and set designer Jacob Nash – Page recreated the grandeur of the productions from his thirty-two-year tenure as artistic director of Bangarra Dance Theatre. While the choreography did not feature any major departure from Page’s signature choreographic style, I was impressed by the dancers’ committed embodiment of his physical vocabulary. However, Page did have a proverbial ‘ace up his sleeve’ in dancer Ryan Pearson, who was a former Bangarra member before joining the cast of Sydney Dance Company.

Despite the brevity of Pearson’s solo, it was clear to me – as a former Bangarra and NAISDA member – that Pearson’s body held the memory of Indigenous movement pathways: from the slightly hunched bearing that is indicative of the flight or fight stance of the Yolngu men’s stick dances to the specific angularity of the knees and elbows when travelling across the floor, and the sharp syncopation of the head that accompanies shifts in weight and direction.

Lastly, I feel compelled to note that it was heartening to see a marked shift in the company’s composition. To see a corps of dancers that better reflects our nation’s population seems well overdue. Perhaps Continuum signals a new direction for Sydney Dance Company – one that embraces a multicultural agenda and broader diversity in content, as evident in the inclusion of works by Dinh and Page.

Continuum (Sydney Dance Company) continues at the Roslyn Packer Theatre until 1 November 2025. Performance attended: October 22.