ADT's Proximity

Australian Dance Theatre premieres its new work Proximity in the Adelaide Festival. Peter Burdon spoke to dancer Daniel Jaber.

“I’ve been working with Garry Stewart for a long time now,” says veteran ADT dancer Daniel Jaber, “and he never ceases to amaze me with his creativity. He’s got a focus that I’ve never seen in other choreographers. He takes a theme, and he explores it in work after work. He reads all the time, and he thinks about what he reads, and he talks to experts until he knows it inside out.” In his most recent piece, Be Your Self, Stewart returned to a dominant focus on movement after a few years of technological diversions. But he never forgets where he’s been. “Way back in 2004 ADT did HELD, with incredible stop action photography,” Daniel explains, “It was a fantastic show and it set a new standard for use of technology in dance. He learnt from that and now, eight years later, it’s back in a whole new way.”

The dominant visual feature in Proximity will be three huge screens. “They’ll take up almost the whole stage,” Daniel explains, “They’ve been developed with a fantastic French designer, Thomas Pachoud. There are cameras everywhere, and the action is projected onto these screens in a kind of amplification of the story. And there is a story, of course, there’s always a story in Garry’s work. But at the same time he’s clear about how the technology can’t overwhelm, it’s got to be the movement. He’s very much aware of what adds, and what detracts.”

“Garry’s still very much focused on broad concepts of identity,” he continues, “he knows the theory and he knows the science, and as a choreographer it puts him in a unique position to present his work theatrically.” And physically, no doubt. “Oh yes,” he says with a laugh, “It’s instantly recognisable as an ADT work. Garry’s always had extreme notions of physicality, and in my eight years he’s pushed that to the limit in every production, and set a new level for the next. We’re doing a lot of break dancing at the moment, there are some really great moments with a lot of exciting moves.” And what of Stewart’s lyrical side? “For sure,” Daniel agrees, “I’ve got a duet with Jessica Hasketh that’s something else. It’s far too close for comfort! I’ll leave you wondering about that.”

Proximity opens in her Majesty’s Theatre on February 24, season to March 3. Book at Bass.