Dance / Essor a solo performance by Yolanda Lowatta. At the National Portrait Gallery, March 1. Reviewed by MICHELLE POTTER.

There is much to admire about Essor, a 20-minute solo performance choreographed and danced at the National Portrait Gallery by indigenous performer Yolanda Lowatta.

As has been the case whenever a dance performance has been commissioned by the NPG (and there have been quite a few such commissions over the past several years), Essor was created in response to photographic material currently on display in the gallery – in this case to Some Lads, a series of portraits by Tracey Moffatt of dancers connected with the Aboriginal and Islander Dance Development Centre who had influenced Lowatta in some way.

The name of the work, Essor, is an indigenous word meaning thank you and the work is Lowatta’s recognition of the impact those lads have had on her.

It was a real pleasure to watch Lowatta’s sense of movement as displayed in her choreography. There was a beautiful overall fluidity in her manner of moving, especially in the arms and upper body. But within this fluidity there were many moments of detail especially in the fingers and in the positions taken by the feet.

But what was remarkable was the way in which Lowatta referenced different styles of dance, all of which must have influenced her current, personal movement style.

Some movements seemed to come straight from the dance style seen in clan performances from indigenous women; some referenced Western contemporary dance, especially those grounded movements that were interspersed throughout; some, such as the leaps with a leg held in arabesque, were quite balletic.

This stylistic diversity, which never looked jarring or lacking in harmony, was reflected in an exceptional soundscape from indigenous multi-artist Bindimu. It contained sounds of water; the playing of indigenous instruments; sounds from nature, including bird calls; human voices; and a range of other audio items. Just as Lowatta’s choreography referenced different dance styles, Bindimu’s soundscape took us, potentially, from venue to venue, that is to a selection of places where dance might been seen.

Bindimu was also responsible for Lowatta’s costume – a dark purple “grass” skirt and top worn over a Western-style, close-fitting pair of black shorts with a separate top. Again, there was a strong reference to more than one aspect of Lowatta’s career.

The work was structured around a circle of audience members, seated on the floor in the centre of the Gordon Darling Hall, with Lowatta moving this way and that and often around the audience in a circular pattern. As the soundscape came to an end, Lowatta led the audience from the Hall to the Gallery where the Moffatt portraits were hanging. She left us there to admire the photographs and, as a result, to reflect further on Essor.

Yolanda Lowatta is a member of Canberra’s Australian Dance Party. The Party’s leaders, Alison Plevey and Sara Black, produced Essor, which has its two final shows at the NPG on Sunday, March 2 at 10.30 and noon.