There's nothing quite like seeing things back to back to help you understand the bigger picture. Thus, when this year's eight Keir Choreographic Award semi-finalists line up at Dancehouse to present their 20-minute vignettes what you see is the condition of Australian contemporary dance; its orthodoxies, pre-occupations and shortfalls.
Despite the differing details of each piece KCA 2016 presents an artform in conflict with itself, most notably around the notion of spectacle. "This is a simulation," chant the dancers in Martin Hansen's If It's All In My Veins. Elsewhere, Chloe Chignell and Sarah Aiken kick over the fourth wall repeatedly and Paea Leach breaches it in order to ask us what dance is for.
Australian contemporary choreography is also extremely body conscious; not merely aesthetically but conceptually, even politically. How can the physical body engage with notions of built space, social justice and tradition?
However, what is also apparent, and quite possibly bizarre, is the form's obsession with intellectual rigour. With the single and notable exception of Leach's One And One And One, (my personal fav), this year's KCA octet is dry and almost bookish.
That said, dance fans will surely love the contrast and compare. It's a rare, expanded window on a time and place in the form's evolution and for that alone it's a winner.
