Stephanie Lake’s VISTA confirms yet again that Lake is one of the most preeminent choreographers working in this country today.

It’s not often that an Australian choreographer is able to break out of the siloed walls of dance to achieve broader appeal. But sitting in a nearly sold-out matinee performance for VISTA in Malthouse Theatre’s Merlyn Theatre on Saturday, I felt the magnetism of Lake’s vision drawing people in like moths to a flame, and I shared in it.

Lake’s explosive choreography is elevated by her eye for creative approaches to staging that favour playful, large-scale transdisciplinary collaborations (last year’s Chronicle, for instance, an on-stage choir accompanied her dancers).

VISTA is notably smaller in scale than many of Lake’s previous productions. Featuring a close-knit ensemble of six performers, it is more intimate and less interested in large-scale spectacle.

Stephanie Lake Company: VISTA. Photo © Pippa Samaya

Do not read this as a critique: the show is never less than utterly transfixing and electrifying; propulsive and poetic. But instead of drawing from the spectacle of opera or live music, VISTA seems to implicitly pull from the styles and tropes of dramatic theatre.

Lake stages the...