Wishing time can be a time to dream or an act of yearning. John Scott's non-prescriptive programme notes suggest "power, energy and love", so there is enough ambiguity left for the audience to find its own reading of Wishing Time, premiered at the SFX on Thursday night.
Stripped back to provide a large, square performance space, Marc Galione's design with fluorescent lights, sliver foil backdrop and a haphazard lighting rig reflects the choreographer's stark aesthetic. Gestures are typically slaps, hisses or blown spits. Dancers only seem to interact with frustration - even laughter is forced by somebody else's tickles.
Only rarely are we released from this grimness. In the very beginning Jade Travers and Katherine O'Malley, backs slammed against loose, noisy metal sheet, stomp through a duet full of angst and stress. Seamlessly we next see a pair of duets, dancers carried shoulder-high with an air of carelessness. The accompanying sounds of dripping water may be a sound-design cliche, but they still added a lightness that marked the moment.
Sequences such as this may stay in the memory but many more don't. With John Scott's choreography not every movement has a meaning, but is often there just because he likes it. He gets away with this because nothing is forced, merely presented for what it is. He is also well served by the dancers, who are completely committed as performers, despite the differences in technical ability.
Katherine O'Malley is particularly outstanding, combining playfulness with the type of self-importance the work needs. In the end we see those shoulder-lifts again, this time with water flowing instead of dripping, the dancers finally getting gently blown around the stage. An hour has passed and Scott's vision of power, energy and love seems no clearer, but images and movements have suggested much. The rest is up to you.