Two years ago I was at the 2023 Brisbane Festival to see Salamander, the astonishing dance-theatre-visual arts piece by British choreographer and director Maxine Doyle with an extraordinary design by superstar Es Devlin. The dancers were from Brisbane-based Australasian Dance Collective, an organisation that may be small in size but huge in aspiration and achievement.

The set was originally made for something else somewhere else and it would seem Salamander will never be seen again. You really do have to cry. 

Anyway, ADC is moving on, as always. For this year’s Brisbane Festival it has another international collaboration, Bad Nature. One might see it as a companion piece to Salamander. Let’s put it this way. Neither sees tomorrow as a walk in the sweet, cool, regenerative air of springtime, although Bad Nature is hopeful that technology might give us a way forward rather than send us to hell in a hand cart.

Bad Nature puts six ADC dancers with six from Club Guy & Roni, a dance-theatre company; composer and artist Boris Acket; and three musicians operating as HIIIT. 

The show is a 60-minute blast of movement, light, sound and visual art with the meaning entirely up to you. The September 3 performance I attended was a preview but it’s hard to believe this extremely technical show could have been better. Bravi all.

The Bad Nature look was futuristic and ceremonial. Large drums were set up on either side of the space and a black disc hung in the centre. Clouds rested and plumed, fire burned, lights surged and retreated and a spacey soundscape filled the theatre. Costumes tended to bondage-chic with tunics to cover as needed, joining the atavistic with the sacred. It was a bit hard to see in the gloom but the drummers, who walked through the space a few times, appeared to be dressed as if to ward off swarms of bees. Who can say why?

The movement was at different points serpentine, gladiatorial, tender, conflicted, fearful and much more. Sometimes there was even some unison, a signal of collective purpose. (Choreography was by Roni Haver, Amy Hollingsworth, Jack Lister and Guy Weizman.)

A translucent veil floated down from on high, settling in different shapes on the floor. In one arrangement they summoned thoughts of those endless tent cities for refugees. Not something we should forget. 

The world pictured here was apocalyptic but not without some glimmer of hope. At the end there were bird sounds, some music with a slightly sacred tinge and a woman whose arms were extended with long wings. A light at the end of a crane swirled around and around and drums pounded elementally. It was all very strange and lovely. Life goes on.

Bad Nature ends September 7.