Sydney Dance Company’s Continuum

A continuum of choreography unites three visionary works exploring movement, connection, and creativity.

By Adeline Teoh

Sydney Dance Company’s new production is a triple bill combining two world premieres by dance and choreography legends Stephen Page and Rafael Bonachela, and a freshly reimagined work by emerging artist Tra Mi Dinh.

Continuum, a triptych presented by the Sydney Dance Company, may look disparate from afar. On one hand, it’s the celebrated return of the legendary Stephen Page AO, whose new work Unungkati Yantatja – One with the Other, was created with lauded composer and Yidaki player William Barton. 

On the other, emerging choreographer Tra Mi Dinh expands on her 2023 New Breed work, Somewhere between Ten and Fourteen, with a cast more than double the original. And somewhere in the middle is Spell by SDC artistic director Rafael Bonachela, where five worlds – set to an evocative score featuring Ólafur Arnalds, Bryce Dessner, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Alice Smith – come to life through movement. 

“What excites me about Continuum is the dialogue between three very different choreographic voices. Each work carries its own distinct language, aesthetic, and emotional world, yet together they form a flow of ideas that feels both contrasting and interconnected,” says Bonachela.

“The connections are not about similarity but about resonance: Stephen Page brings a depth of cultural storytelling and live music that grounds the program in history and tradition; Tra Mi Dinh offers an urgent, playful, and distinctly contemporary perspective as an emerging voice; and my own work explores transformation and interconnectedness through movement and sound.”

Part of Bonachela’s work took shape during a residency at the Orsolina28 Art Foundation in northern Italy, an experience that was a “rare privilege”, he says. “Orsolina28 seems purpose-built to foster imagination; the landscape, the light, the quiet – everything encourages a deeper connection, both to the work and to yourself. That environment left a clear imprint on Spell; its stillness, its expressiveness, and its sense of suspended time all carry traces of what we found and felt there.”

The worldbuilding within Spell comes from the extraordinary score. “The music is made up of five distinct tracks, and I treat each one as its own spell, its own self-contained universe with a unique atmosphere, logic, and energy,” Bonachela explains. “The score and the choreography exist in constant dialogue. The music doesn’t simply accompany the movement, it creates the atmosphere and emotional terrain that the dancers inhabit. It is this living interplay that gives Spell its layered quality, where sound and movement conjure and transform one another.”

Page also sees music as a key part of his work. Barton’s score is not only integral, the Yidaki player will perform live with the award-winning Omega Ensemble in a work that calls out to land, sea, sky, and creatures, while connecting us to country, each other, and the continual rhythm of life. 

“William weaving his energy through the whole experience, carrying it forward to be felt by audiences is going to be really special,” says Page. “I love telling stories and creating, especially in the world of dance, and caring for William’s story is a gift.”

The presentation of Dinh’s work is a rare chance to share the stage with two world premieres by established choreographers. “It’s a real privilege to share the bill with these icons,” she says. “I see that we all adore the moving body. I think our works will all share a certain affinity towards virtuosity. From what I know about the other works, the audiences will experience three distinct worlds each connecting to the elements that make up our world: fire, earth, air, water.”

Somewhere between Ten and Fourteen was originally performed by six dancers in her 2023 New Breed premiere; in this expanded work, Dinh has 13 cast members. “Thanks to Raf’s invitation for me to reimagine it on a larger cast, I’ve been able to refine and evolve the choreographic principles that led me to its inception back in 2023. 

“I’m interested in the duality of precision and release, and working with more bodies opens up more opportunities for choreographic intricacies and complexities to unfold.”

Like Page and Bonachela, Dinh is also a dancer but says she’s always been interested in choreography, “crafting movement quality through the study of texture, directing the push and pull of tension through structural shifts, and creating and dissolving imagery with bodies,” she describes. 

“As a dancer, I get to experience the energetic sensations of different movement languages and aesthetics; as a choreographer, I get to consider the frame, the ‘big picture’ of a scene or feeling, I get to dictate the form and structure. Both of these roles really feed into each other and allow me to be conscious of the ‘dance’ that happens within the body and from the outside.”

Whereas the senior choreographers drew their work from music, Dinh says hers is inspired by an art installation, Ann Veronica Janssens’ Blue, Red and Yellow. “It’s a work I experienced at her exhibit Hot Pink Turquoise at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in early 2020. You walk into a large box of fog that is coloured in pinks and purples, barely able to see a metre in front of you. Carefully and giddily, strangers stumble through the cloud together. It’s beautiful.”

It’s a fitting metaphor for Continuum, where three works that begin as strangers to one another connect in spirit. “Seen together, the three pieces highlight the richness of dance in Australia today – past, present, and future – in conversation on a single stage,” says Bonachela. “The contrasts actually become the connection, creating a continuum of expression that moves fluidly across generations, aesthetics, and worlds of experience.”

Find info on performance dates and tickets at www.sydneydancecompany.com