Queensland Ballet’s first mainstage production of 2017 is an emotionally-charged triple bill featuring works by Liam Scarlett, Greg Horsman and Christopher Bruce. The three pieces are themed around love, loss, and death, creating a captivating performance that seeks to explore the raw edges and emotions of the human experience.

Raw opened with No Man’s Land, choreographed by Liam Scarlett, who became a more permanent fixture at Queensland Ballet as Artistic Associate in 2017. Staged by Yohei Sasaki and set to Franz Liszt’s Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses, the piece was created as a commemoration for the WWI centenary, and offers a meditation on the entwined destinies of the women working in munitions factories at home, and the men in the trenches waiting to return to them.

^{Laura Hidalgo and Rian Thompson in No Man’s Land. Photos © David Kelly}

Liam Scarlett’s highly physical choreography made audiences feel almost claustrophobic, but the dancers handled it skillfully. Lighting design by Paul Keogan and impressive sets designed by Jon Bausor created a bleak backdrop against which the emotion and expression of the performers was amplified. The visual of gunpowder being flung into the air was particularly effective.

Laura...