“A HIGH VOLTAGE PERFORMANCE” The Adelaide Review

Weaving together live music and astonishingly powerful contemporary dance, The Beginning of Nature is a compelling work from the world-renowned Australian Dance Theatre.

The Beginning of Nature explores life cycles and themes of metamorphosis and transformation and the complex symphony of rhythmic patterns within nature – flocking and herding, day and night, the changing seasons, growth and decay, tidal patterns. This extraordinary work explores the integral forces that nature asserts over humankind despite our continued efforts to see ourselves as separate. The dance explores the idea that our bodies are inscribed with the same rhythms that underpin nature itself.

With live accompaniment by the acclaimed Zephyr Quartet and two vocalists, the score combines electronica, strings and a libretto sung in Kaurna language, the first language of the Adelaide Plains, home to ADT.

At times fierce and explosive, at other times graceful and meditative The Beginning of Nature is a tour-de-force from one of the world’s most formidable companies.

“…a powerful work which … drew a rapturous reception from the spellbound crowd.” Dance Australia