Quantum Leap Australia – Michelle Potter

My review of Mettle was published online by CBR CityNews on 25 July 2026, following its opening performance in Canberra on 24 July. The review below is a slightly enlarged version of the CityNews post. Follow this link to the CityNews review.

**************************

24 July, 2026. The Vault, Dairy Road Precinct, Fyshwick (Canberra)

‘It’s time to test your mettle,’ says media advertising for the latest production from Quantum Leap Australia. Mettle, the production, had choreography by Alice Lee Holland and Jack Ziesing, with a soundscape by Sascha Budimski, visuals from Creswick Collective and lighting from Holland, Zeising, Ninian Donald and Owen Davis.

The venue was The Vault, located in the Dairy Road Precinct in Fyshwick, an industrial area of Canberra. The Vault is often referred to as a ‘cave’ or ‘concrete bunker’ as a result of its somewhat vast, windowless space without any theatrical trappings. In fact, it was originally a space used to store coins, and later beer, and it has become an ideal space for immersive productions with the audience usually surrounded on three sides by various aspects of the production.

But rather than having a strongly felt immersive aspect to it, the production of Mettle was more like watching dancing on a knife’s edge. While the soundscape, the lighting and the changing visuals were there to be noticed, the focus was more on what would happen next. How would the dancers manage what seemed from the beginning to be a challenging situation for them?

Thirteen dancers of varying ages began quietly in a line at the back of the performing space and walked slowly forward. But one by one they fell to the floor and began twisting and turning, standing and falling, separately and then together in various combinations. The choreography was highly complex and mostly fast-moving with some sections quite acrobatic and others, such as movements of the fingers, quite small but clear and intense.

Groupings in the early stages looked unstructured as bodies seemed to fall on top of each other in a jumble. Some of the connections between dancers, such as a duet between the two male members of the cast, even looked full of hostility.

A group of dancers in *Mettle,* Quantum Leap Australia, 2026. Photo: © Olivia Wikner, O&J Wikner Photography

As the work moved along, however, there were moments when the jumbled look gave way to a structure that was more ordered and even a little symmetrical. As the end approached, the choreography continued its speed and power and, after a solo by one dancer, a stillness as we had seen at the beginning returned. Had the mettle been tested and had resilience emerged?

Solo dancer in *Mettle*, Quantum Leap Australia, 2026. Photo: © Olivia Wikner, O&J Wikner Photography

Costumes by Aleisa Jelbart were the strongest collaborative element. Jelbart had created thirteen different designs, one for each dancer. They consisted of black and grey items—tops, pants (some short and tight, some long and loose), socks and leggings, arm coverings and other elements. Some items of costuming looked grungy and torn, others fashionable in a present-day style. They added an excellent element to the production and to the diversity of the dancers, a diversity of age, size and experience.

Mettle was a production that must have been quite exhausting for the dancers. It was an hour of almost continuous movement from every dancer. They attacked the choreography, with its continuing and spectacular twists and turns, and its ongoing interpersonal connections, with determination and skill. They demonstrated clearly that dancing on a knife’s edge has a strength and ultimately an influence on an audience.

Michelle Potter, 25 July 2026

Featured image: A moment from Mettle, Quantum Leap Australia, 2026. Photo: © Olivia Wikner, O&J Wikner Photography

I was a guest of Quantum Leap Australia at this performance.

My review of the Emerging Choreographers Project was published online by Canberra CityNews on 14 December 2025. The review below is a slightly enlarged version of the CityNews post. Here is a link to the CityNews review.

Emerging Choreographers Project. Quantum Leap Australia. A Block Theatre, Gorman Arts Centre, Canberra. 13 December 2025

The Emerging Choreographers Project (ECP) has been an annual Canberra-based event for several years now. Its aim has always been to give aspiring young choreographers an opportunity to collaborate with professional artists in the creation of an original dance work. The initial surprise of the 2025 program, however, came from opening remarks by Alice Lee Holland, current artistic director of what we have long known as QL2 Dance. She unveiled the news that the organisation is working towards the establishment of a new name, Quantum Leap Australia. The reason for the change was not explained, although one has to assume that it was, at least partly, a result of the leadership change. But it does also position the event in a wider context (in a geographical sense) and Canberra arts events can certainly do with being given wider recognition even if only by a name change.

The 2025 ECP was presented under this new name with six emerging choreographers participating in the program: Akira Byrne, Chloe Curtis, Jahna Lugnan, Lucia Morabito, Gigi Rohrlach and Maya Wille-Bellchambers. They were mentored by Holland and Emma Batchelor and were also given the opportunity, a new initiative, of working closely with Owen Davies of Sidestage, the Canberra-based organisation dealing in audio-visual technology for stage productions. While this I’m sure gave the choreographers extra inspiration, some of the lighting was quite dark, which is not an uncommon feature of dance productions at present (unfortunately I have to say).

In terms of mentoring, it would have been an added benefit if there had been some emphasis on how to speak out to the audience when, at the beginning of each work, the choreographer is required to give a brief introduction to the work. It is slightly annoying when the speaker is jigging around, as happened in most cases in this show. Please, ‘Speak up, stand still and look out at the audience!’

The work that stood out for me was Breathing Statues by Gigi Rohrlach in which four dancers moved from one sculptural pose to another. It appeared to me that the work was set in an Asian context in terms of the costumes, in the somewhat twisted and evocative arm movements as the dancers wrapped themselves around each other, and in sections of the music by Japanese composer Masakatsu Takagi.

I also enjoyed the closing work, Jahna Lugnan’s The Dog Shows No Concern, which Lugnan described in program notes as ‘resisting audience expectations and traditional narratives’. It certainly was unexpected in its musical approach, beginning with an excerpt from Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen but moving on to sound that was much more contemporary. So too was the costuming varied, perhaps one might even say outrageous, but certainly expressive of a variety of possible thoughts.

Scene from *The Dog Shows No Concern*. Quantum Leap Australia, 2025. Photo: © Olivia Wikner

The shape of me is shifting from Akira Byrne left me wondering about the difference between physical theatre and dance. I found Byrne’s emphasis on the spoken word frustrating, especially when at times it was hard to hear the words over the music. Nor was I a fan of the movement, especially for the group of four dancers who were like a collection of drooping shapes while the two main performers wrapped themselves around a metal structure. Program notes say the work examined the ‘relationship between mind, body, self and skin’.

A scene from *the shape of me is shifting*. Quantum Leap Australia, 2025. Photo: © Olivia Wikner

Some ideas don’t easily translate into dance especially when they are quite abstract concepts. I felt this was the case with Byrne’s work and also with Chloe Curtis’ Chorophobia, which set out to examine psychological reactions to fear.

One positive aspect of all works was the strength of the use of the performing space by each of the choreographers, including in those works that were staged in several short sections, such as Metamorphosis from Maya Wille-Bellchambers and Mirage of Memories from Lucia Morabito. Also interesting on a number of occasions was the visual nature of the groupings (if not always all that original).

Scene from *Metamorphosis*. Quantum Leap Australia, 2025. Photo: © Olivia Wikner

Choreography is not an easy art to master and, despite my reservations about some aspects of the works on show on this occasion, I have the utmost respect for those members of Quantum Leap Australia who had the courage to step up and create.

Michelle Potter, 16 December 2025

I was a guest of Quantum Leap Australia at this performance.