Standing on a Rising Wave
Commission by The Australian Ballet Bodytorque season
2024 November
Arts Centre Melbourne
Standing on a Rising Wave considers the foundations of our actions. It celebrates the seemingly fruitless and meandering pathways that ultimately enrich us. Standing on a Rising Wave also foregrounds the importance of uplifting one another, as we are able to create something collectively that could never be possible alone.
Choreography Yuiko Masukawa
Music Alisdair Macindoe
Dancers Amy Ronnfeldt, Belle Urwin, Yaru Xu, Drew Hedditch, Harrison Bradley and Alain Juelg
Dance Australia
“ Yuiko Masukawa’s work Standing on a Rising Wave is pure classicism. Accompanied by a terrific score by Alisdair Macindoe, the choreography is all dynamism and attack. Waves of movement create explosions of momentum. Crisp phrases resolve into elongated poses. The work reminds me of Balanchine and Forsythe – very technical and showy but with a gentler edge. The patterning of the piece has pairings, groups and everything happening simultaneously, but connected. There are relays and chains showing how one dancer is linked with the others. Masukawa uses her six dancers masterfully to fill the space and draw attention to their technical feats. Costuming is elegantly simple – various coloured tops and leotards paired with contrasting boy-leg dance shorts looked fresh and showed the dancers’ lines well. This is a very accomplished and exciting work.
Masukawa is an independent choreographer and winner of the 2023 Telstra Emerging Choreographer award. She has created works in a range of styles, showing her versatility and ability to make on a variety of dancers, from the experimental through to contemporary and classical ballet. - SUSAN BENDALL ”
“It is a heavy mantle, collectivism, and the virtue of Masukawa’s intent neither hastens nor eases her task. However, it is heartening to watch ballet that addresses optimism in this way; ballet that speaks to our need for collective ideas of the self. As Forsythe also said, “A life in a body is a life of negotiating the real world” (3). Surely this negotiation demands a similar, brilliant coalition like that in Standing on a Rising Wave.” (3) Sulcas, “Ideas Move Us,” 27.
— Hamish McIntosh