DATE: Monday, November 10, 1997             TAG: 9711100025

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Dance Review 

SOURCE: BY SUE VANHECKE, CORRESPONDENT 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   40 lines

SYDNEY DANCE COMPANY MAKES A ``RADICAL'' APPROACH WORK AT PAVILION

In the world of dance, is movement necessarily a function of music? Or can choreography actually suggest sound?

Sydney Dance Co. explored those issues and more Saturday night with ``Free Radicals,'' a celebratory study of the organic interaction between music and dance.

Artistic director and choreographer Graeme Murphy's only concept in the creation of ``Free Radicals'' was that there be absolutely no concept. Bring 16 dancers and three musicians together and see what happens.

The result was stunning.

The onstage musicians - percussionists Michael Askill, Alison Low Choy and Alison Eddington - both accompanied and participated in the piece, beating out complex rhythms on drums, bowls, clay pots, metal sheets, even on the dancers themselves.

And the dancers, who at times partnered with the percussionists - upsetting the drum kit during one minor mishap - became musicians as well, stomping out flamenco cadences with tap shoes, ringing delicate finger cymbals, singing, chanting, whispering. During one woman's limber solo, basic clapping, finger snapping and breathing were music enough.

Beyond the physical beauty of the evening - the Australian troupe is a visually striking group - Murphy's refreshing choreography was equally captivating.

In a magnificent pas de trois to the eerie, undersea-like sounds of large metal bowls and pipes being struck with mallets and stroked with bows, a pair of men lofted a woman in beautifully fluid lifts, suggesting the weightless, boundless motion of water creatures.

In an intriguing pas de deux, a woman and man executed tandem turns and lifts with her feet atop his at almost all times.

There were many playful moments as well, including an unusual interlude where a woman frolicked with glowing orbs, and a hilarious slapstick piece featuring a man struggling with his apparently adhesive hands and feet.

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