“This Music Really Resonated With My Frame Of Mind"

Perhaps we sometimes overlook the fact that the artists we admire are just like us: entirely human and subject to all the shocks that entails. It is only through the clues in their work that we can glimpse the deeper parts of their lives. When Sydney Dance Company takes to the stage for the first time in 2015 audiences will witness something of the beating hearts of its principal creators. For Frame Of Mind not only brings together the work of two of dance’s most exceptional choreographers but underlines just how powerful, personal and even profound art can be.

The story begins in the late 1990s when a young Rafael Bonachela went to see a work by William Forsythe. The former was a young dancer dreaming of being a choreographer and the latter was the undisputed god of contemporary ballet. Nearly two decades later, Bonachela heads up Sydney Dance and Forsythe’s heartbreaking masterpiece Quintett will make its Australian debut as part of Frame Of Mind. Bonachela is an unabashed ‘Billy’ fan and Quintett is a real touchstone. “It was like nothing I’d ever seen; the dancers and everything,” he recalls. “I really connected with it. It was really human, when at the time Billy was making work that was very electronic and brutal; and suddenly he made this beautiful, moving work.”

The intimacy of the work and its special place in the Forsythe catalogue have already given it the status of an acknowledged masterpiece. Since its 1993 debut, its creator has only allowed seven other companies to perform the work, with Sydney Dance being the first in our hemisphere. “Since he first made it, Billy has opened up about it and I know that it was a love letter to his dying wife,” Bonachela explains. “Y’know, and she never actually got to see it.” Alongside Quintett, the programme will also feature Bonachela’s latest work Frame Of Mind. Here again, the wellspring is close and personal. “Last year was a challenging year for me,” he reveals. “I had things that were going on with my family in Spain and it was so far away and I felt so impotent.”

People familiar with Bonachela’s work will note that his style is highly physical and often very emotional. For the new work, he has married this style to a piece of music composed by The National’s Bryce Dessner, originally written for the Kronos Quartet. A chance meeting with Dessner at the Vivid festival led Bonachela to the piece; and upon hearing it he knew right away. “This music really resonated with my ‘frame of mind’ at the time. It makes me think about life and how things can change so quickly.”