Impermanence

Returning to the stage for a national Australian tour after a sell-out Sydney world premiere season and an Adelaide Festival smash hit run, Rafael Bonachela’s Impermanence is “arguably the single best piece created by and for an Australian dance company for many years” (Adelaide Advertiser).

A visceral and thrilling exploration of the juxtaposition of beauty and devastation, this full-length work features a new score full of emotional power from Grammy Award-winning composer Bryce Dessner.

Best known as a founder of American rock band The National and for his film scores for The Revenant and The Two Popes, Dessner was initially inspired by the tragedy of the Australian bush fires and the Notre-Dame fire in Paris. Sydney Dance Company’s “awe inspiring” (In Daily) ensemble is joined live on stage by the Australian String Quartet. This is epic, driven performance that packs an emotional punch.

When COVID-19 struck in March 2020, Impermanence was only four days from its world premiere and opening night. As the impact of the pandemic became apparent, performances were cancelled and artists sent into lockdown. Life, and recovery, were on hold, but the collaboration persevered. The ASQ recorded the compositions in lockdown, the dancers rehearsed in isolation, and with the added poignancy of a pandemic that has exposed so many vulnerabilities and changed us all at a profound level, Impermanence returns to the stage.

Experience the power of dance and music performed live together, laden with meaning, fleeting and vulnerable and from devastation, find energy, urgency, radiance and hope.

★★★★★ “Dance moves for the end of the world... Choreographer Rafael Bonachela sets his excellent dancers on a whirling, bounding trajectory…” – The Sydney Morning Herald.

★★★★.5 “A hypnotically beautiful work, stunningly performed” – Limelight

“A tear-jerker without being baroque, with a finger on the vein of our collective anxieties and dislocations, Impermanence is a triumph of collaboration and passion.” – Arts Hub