Go in to your dance
Andrew Killian has been hard at work all year with the Australian Ballet, but there’s a noticeable excitement about a work he is about to perform, which he calls a gift.
The gift is Jir?em>, a tribute work featuring four dance pieces by Czech choreographer, Jir?yli? and Killian admits he has been looking forward to performing this work all year. He also opens in the coming weeks in another Australian Ballet work, bodytorque.two.
It is things like Jir?em> that keep me really interested, the 25-year-old dancer admits.
Jir?em> is an international work, but it is also a new work. It is the little gifts like the Jir?em> program which get you up and out of bed some of the mornings when it all gets a bit hard, he adds with a laugh.
I love this as it is four very different works, but all by the same choreographer. I think they are amazing and he is one of my favourite choreographers.
Killian, who also performed in Kyli?s acclaimed work Bella Figura in the 2003 season, features in three of the four dance works in Jir?em> -“ Forgotten Land, Stepping Stones and Petite Mort -“ while the fourth piece Sechs Tanze is a Sydney premiere.
None of them are really character works, he says. They all have emotions and feelings in the works, but there is no particular story to follow. It is more about the mood.
Petite Mort is the work which Killian believes will attract attention as it is erotically charged and sexual in its nature. Six men are partnered with six women, yet one part of the dance is the women dancing by themselves, and another is the men involved in a group scene.
There is a sexuality and energy suggested, but there is something left up to the audience to find for themselves. I think it’s a great work, he says.
Bodytorque.two is a new workshop show to encourage new choreographers, and Killian and Andrea Parkyn feature in a duo piece called Untitled Prologues, which has been choreographed by Lucas Jervies.
Untitled Prologues is about the idea of interruption and what happens when a man and a woman are constantly interrupted by outside forces. It is contemporary and really clever, he says. Lucas is actually an old school mate of mine, as we were both at the Victorian College of the Arts together. He has been away for a few years, and is now back and is my choreographer.
We close the bodytorque.two show on a Saturday and then open the Jir?em> show on the Tuesday, so it’s a busy time.
Bodytorque.two plays at the Sydney Theatre from 3 to 5 November. Bookings on 9250 1999. Jir?lays at the Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House, from 9 to 28 November. Bookings on 9250 7777.
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