120 Birds

120 Birds does not try to recreate the personage of Pavlova, rather it expresses the influence and effect she had on the people she worked with. Lea’s passionate narrative of one member of Pavlova's company draws the audience into the emotion of a person who has lost a great role model.

Four dancers sashay across the floor adorned with jewels, feathers, tassels and silk gowns appropriate to the early 20th century. Flowers, bird cages and hat boxes are thrown into the air and catch with a gusto befitting the flamboyance that defined Pavlova’s tours of Australia and Asia. Rare early century footage of Pavlova’s company from the National Archive in Australia is weaved into the live choreography.

The shifts are not always seamless: sometimes the footage cuts into the speech causing the audience to lose the overall effect. At times, the footage seems more history lesson than dance theatre. However, the score, also complied by Lea, is complimentary: such is the dancers’ timing that it appears the music is created by their intricate movement.

The international cast - Lea specialises in Indian dance, Laura Caldow trained in New York, Liesl Bourke in Monaco and Federico Farfaro in Argentina - combine their skills to form a colourful collaboration of different dances.  The subtle movement from Charleston to Tango to Waltz to Modern makes 120 Birds a striking production that captures impressions of an important moment in dance history.