Inside There Falls, on at Carriageworks as part of Sydney Festival this month, is the most inter-disciplinary art piece I have ever experienced, combining paper art, installation, sculpture, writing, spoken word, costume design, music and dance. The piece is an installation by UK-based artist Mira Calix, with dancers from the Sydney Dance Company and choreography by Rafaela Bonachela.
As an audience member, the experience begins by being led into a dark room and asked to wear white overalls or coat, and being given a scrunched up paper object to hold. The sound of a woman’s voice starts to emanate from the object, reading poetry on the body and identity, written by Sydney-based writer Brett Clegg and read by actress Hayley Atwell. Already the mood is set.
After 10 or so minutes, we were led through to the next room, a large cavernous space filled with pieces of artfully creased and crumpled paper hanging from the ceiling in sheets, creating winding paths through the space. At the centre of the far end, the space opens out, with an oval-shaped clearing, in the middle of which sits a white sculptural object surrounded by what looks like rock salt, with a mound of what looks like cinnamon in the centre. Above hangs a brown sphere made of paper.
As we wander the space, we start to notice two waif-like dancers, wearing white diaphanous clothing and golden headwear, one woman, one man. As they wander the space, they made fluid movements, interacting with the environment and occasionally each other. As the music builds, the dancers move into the main space, becoming more jarring in their movements and interacting with one another, as well as with the audience members until there is a climax in a cacophony of strings.
The sound of the narrator reading the poems is still present, while the dancers are mesmerising in their beauty and movement through the white space, until it is over and we file out.
This arresting performance was one I did not expect, and one which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was enhanced by happening to meet the father of one of the dancers in the queue who was there to support his highly talented 19-year-old daughter who had just realised a lifelong ambition to join the Sydney Dance Company.
Inside There Falls was co-commissioned by Brett Clegg, Gretel Packer, Simon and Catriona Mordant AM and Sydney Festival Project.
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