Five by Night, West Australian Ballet, Perth, February 10

The Quarry Amphitheatre is one of the loveliest performing arts venues in the world. The former limestone quarry is situated in bushland with views of the city beyond and on a balmy night – and that’s pretty much expected in February – there is nothing finer than to sit on one of the terraced rows with a picnic and some delicious West Australian wine as the sun goes down.

(Idle thought: is the only good thing about Western Australia’s refusal to participate in daylight saving that Quarry performances can start at 8pm rather than 9pm?)

Not surprisingly, West Australian Ballet’s long-standing annual Quarry season is a perennial favourite with Perth audiences and indeed for many may be their only ballet experience of the year. So be it. The season is usually a sell-out or close to it and the relaxed atmosphere means a different kind of programming can be offered than that in WAB’s home theatre, His Majesty’s.

The amphitheatre celebrates its 30^th anniversary in November this year and WAB has been with it pretty much all the way. It’s a valuable tradition.

This year there are five short works: two by David Dawson, whose work hasn’t been seen at WAB for 16 years; one by European-based Australian dancer and choreographer Craig Davidson; and two from WAB dancers. One of the latter pieces is a group effort, something that could seem a recipe for disaster but which in fact was light-hearted and enjoyable.

Soloist Andre Santos is responsible for the clear standout of the night, In Black. It’s an extension of a piece he made in 2014 for WAB’s choreographic development program Genesis and it’s tremendous fun, giving an ambitiously large group of dancers – 13 – a fizzingly fast workout. Despite his relative inexperience as a choreographer Santos has an excellent eye. His construction is sound as he confidently groups and regroups dancers to concentrate the eye on the whole, on smaller gatherings or on individuals. The fact that he has created his dance on eight women and five men tells something in itself: he understands the interest one can get from unequal numbers even in completely abstract work. And he would appear to be pragmatic. The truth is that WAB’s women are stronger at present as a group than the men. Why not use more of them?

Perhaps the most striking feature of In Black was its dynamics. Santos has dancers moving very quickly indeed to the beat – the music is a mixed bag of tracks by French composers René Aubry and Woodkid and Canadian dancer and composer Davidson Jaconello – and then he throws in a luxurious leg extension that stretches not only the body but time and rhythm too. And then the dancer is off again. It’s exhilarating.

In Black features a leading couple (Polly Hilton and Christian Luck on the night I attended), a trio of women (Sarah Hepburn, Kymberleigh Cowley and Vida Polokov) and four male-female couples (Florence Leroux-Coléno and Liam Green, Meg Parry and Adam Alzaim, Victoria Maughan and Alessio Scognamiglio, Phebe Sleeman and Jesse Homes).

Santos gives the women terrifically lively material and celebrates their attack. I loved that they are not manhandled endlessly and that he gives the four secondary men a punchy quartet in which they occasionally support one another. All the dancers were wonderful but Hilton has to be singled out for her leggy glamour and to-the-edge fearlessness.

In Black closed Five by Night in style. The title, by the way, is echoed in the costume design, also by Santos. He put the men in sleek tops and shorts and the women in elegant variations of little black dresses.

Earlier in the evening Hilton was also prominent in To the Pointe, choreographed by WAB dancers including Santos with Melissa Boniface, Victoria Maughan, Meg Parry, Jayne Smeulders and breakdancer and guest artist Pepito. To the Pointe isn’t a ballet for the ages but it is the kind of entertainment that suits the Quarry. In a mash-up of classical moves, gymnastics and street dance, Pepito wowed with virtuosic spins on head and shoulders and Smeulders amazed with super-fast backflips and a no-hands cartwheel. Smeulders is apparently to retire this year but looks as if she could continue for much longer. She turned 40 last year but is ageless.

David Dawson’s 5, to an arrangement by David Coleman of music by Adolphe Adam for Giselle (you’d be hard-pressed to recognise it), puts three women in the crispest of white tutus by Yumiko Takeshima and gives them two male supporters. It’s an energetic start to Five by Night, danced with exceptional verve, polish and poise at the performance I saw by the trio of Sarah Hepburn, Chihiro Nomura and Carina Roberts. It was the first appearance in their roles for twins Oliver and Matthew Edwardson, who needed to impose themselves rather more strongly and precisely on the classical material.

Dawson’s On the Nature of Daylight is a pas de deux for WAB ballet mistress Sandy Delasalle and principal artist Matthew Lehmann, who last year had a moment with Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s La Pluie. On the Nature of Daylight is notable for its difficult lifts, Max Richter score and Lehmann’s strong partnering of the elegant Delasalle but is more a pièce d’occasion than anything else.

Craig Davidson’s Ambiguous Content, for four couples (Florence Leroux-Coléno and Alessio Scognamiglio, Nikki Blain and Andrew Radak, Chihiro Nomura and Oliver Edwardson, Brook Widdison-Jacobs and Christopher Hill), is highly competent but generic neo-classical dance. Leroux-Coléno lit up the stage whenever she appeared – she is a wonderful artist – and Widdison-Jacobs looked sleek and refined, although also somewhat chilly and abstracted. She had reason to look distant, however, as she had the misfortune to be manipulated by one man, then two, then three. Why do (mostly male) choreographers insist on this tediousness?

Five by Night ends on February 27.

Disclosure: I am a member of West Australian Ballet’s artistic review panel, which makes independent reports to the WAB board on artistic matters.