Cutting Edge Dance From Adelaide’s Daniel Jaber: Reassessment – A Double Bill – Review

Space Theatre, Wed Aug 6 A lone figure onstage – Daniel Jaber – slowly flagellates his bare back in complete silence. For a long, long time. What follows is a confronting, at times confusing yet utterly mesmerising performance in this opening piece, Too Far Again, Not Far Enough. Jaber’s command of dance is unquestionable, he is fluid, precise and controlled. His body projects a kaleidoscope of movement and form that gives visual voice to the conflict that arises when one searches to find and understand their inner core. Beautifully narrated voice texts and wild animations add new layers of art beneath which Jaber explores how enforced gender rules in society play within the individual. Part 2, entitled Agile was perhaps a little more accessible to the audience, exploring traditional ballet, the pas de deux, as a “microcosm of social sexuality”. Brilliantly choreographed by Jaber, Agile is driven by a fascinating spoken narrative that explores the construction of the prima ballerina - the penis through which the essentially effeminate male orchestrates his own masculinity. Alexander Baden-Bryce, Madeleine Edwards, Kialea-Nadine Williams and Kimball Wong (all highly accomplished dancers in their own right) are a strong yet diverse ensemble, giving form to the questions this piece seeks to ask of the audience – is the “leggy, anorexic hyper-extended ballerina” still relevant and why must dancers conform to social constructions of physical perfection and beauty to be recognised? In both pieces, the sexualisation of gender is the thread that binds, and the audience was definitely challenged to confront their own preconceptions and reassess how they view not only the dancer but the self as well. by Rosie van Heerde Daniel Jaber’s Reassessment – A Double Bill continues at Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre, until Sat Aug 9.