Dance & Music / Mandolina Ballerina, Canberra Mandolin Orchestra and guest dancer Tessa Karle. At Folk Dance Canberra, August 16. Reviewed by MICHELLE POTTER.

Mandolina Ballerina was an unexpected collaboration between Canberra Mandolin Orchestra, augmented by the presence of a harp and a double bass, and Canberra-raised dancer Tessa Karle, currently performing with the Wellington-based Royal New Zealand Ballet.

The program, which had just two performances, consisted of 10 short musical items from various well-known composers. Each item was introduced by conductor Michael Hardy. Four of those musical items included a solo choreographed and danced by Karle.

First the music. One item, Serenade Espagnole, was written especially for mandolin in 1963 by French composer François Menichetti. The rest, which included excerpts from well-known ballets such as Swan Lake and Nutcracker, had been arranged for mandolin by Hardy.

The musical excerpts sounded quite different when played on mandolins rather than by an expanded orchestra, but it was interesting to watch the audience’s reactions. Almost everyone was taken in by the music and people around me were fully absorbed as they swayed from side to side, or followed the music with waving hands or (silent) tapping of the feet. These reactions were especially noticeable during the playing of Johann Strauss’ Beautiful Blue Danube  ̶  that very danceable waltz.

Secondly the venue. Mandolina Ballerina was performed in a small hall in the Canberra suburb of Hackett, a hall used by Folk Dance Canberra for its activities. The hall had a stage, which was not used. The audience was seated in three rows arranged in a semi-circle with the orchestra on floor level in front of the stage. An open area existed between the orchestra and the audience with a Tarkett dance floor spread over that area. It was the performing space for Karle.

Thirdly the dancing. The small size of the dance space meant that Karle’s choreography was limited. It could not include, for example, large jumps that moved through the space, or any structure that developed a noticeable floor pattern.

The arrangement of seating on a single level unfortunately hindered the audience’s view (apart from that of those sitting in the front row) of the choreography. This was especially frustrating in relation to Karle’s performance of Anna Pavlova’s famous solo The Dying Swan, which has several sections taking place on the floor when the dancing shows the dying moments of the swan.

But in the circumstances, Karle’s performance was well worth watching. She has beautifully developed upper body movement and she also managed to inject a particular personality into each of her solos. Her changing emotional responses were perhaps most noticeable in her rendition of the Habanera from Georges Bizet’s music for Carmen. Those responses looked very different from, say, her facial expression in her performance of Prayer to the music of Léo Delibes from Coppélia.

In conclusion, Canberra Mandolin Orchestra deserves congratulations for taking on this collaboration. While there were various aspects of the show, especially in relation to the dance segments, that needed to be thought through in more detail, I hope the organisation will continue to work on the idea of collaboration across the arts.