★★★★☆ Bright new ideas from a quartet of rising choreographic stars.

Carriageworks, Sydney
December 9, 2015

This year marks the second outing for Rafael Bonachela’s cunning plan to give a raft of young choreographers a chance to flex their creative muscles by creating new works utilising the skills of 16 dancers from Sydney Dance Company. In other words, it’s a chance to have your ideas workshopped by the very best. If the first New Breed felt a bit rough and ready, or even a bit hit or miss, this one steps up a gear with commissioned music and some impressive costume and lighting design. The result is definitely more hit than miss, constituting a glimpse into the future and spotlighting four exciting Australian dancemakers.

^{Cass Mortimer Eipper in Bernhard Knauer’s Derived}

The shortest and most conventional work was Bernhard Knauer’s Derived, its title a nod to his inspirational source – the music of his father. Jürgen Knauer was a Dresden-born composer and violist whose work inhabits a European late-tonal world, in this case sounding a bit like a bleak viol consort put through the mangle by Alban Berg. His son’s choreography is...