ALTER by Liz Lea and Company, presented by The Bold Festival as part of the 2026 Craft + Design Festival, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT).
Belconnen Arts Centre, November 6-7, 2026.
Reviewed by Frank McKone
Nov 7 (2pm matinee)
Directors: Liz Lea & Peta Khan
Choreography: Liz Lea and company
Performers:
3 - Luvenia Kalia, Aida Redza, Jareen Wee
Virtual View - Lim Yu En, Mia Rashid, Aida Redza, Katie Senior, Jareen Wee
Creative Technologists: Low Zi Xiang and Steve Voon
Lighting Design: Karen Norris
Composer and Musical Director: Kay Ansah
Technical Director: Roni Wilkinson
Sound Operator: Kyle Sheedy
Production Manager: Anni Doyle Wawrzynczak
Events Marketing Manager: Christopher Carroll; Facilities Manager: Paul Portelli
Sidestage Production Services: Craig Dear
Photos by Olivia Wikner
Supported by ACT Government and Creative Australia.
ALTER is a highly imaginative “immersive dance and design” work, abstract in form while open to symbolic interpretation, in a general sense, but also in the particular, as I see it:
Beneath and between the dam walls of Canberra – Cotter, modern in the west; Googong, ancient in the east – the powers of water, light and history flow into and around us all, the spirit force often glorious, sometimes fearful, even unto the ultimate reality of fire and ash.
Yet life glides in and around through seeking out ourselves and others, to the beginnings of new generations – an ending, of hope, for the future – always.
The Company describes their work as “exploring the interplay between body, identity and cross-cultural exchange” between the Australian and Malaysian artists taking part – in itself a key aspect of multi-cultural Canberra life; at the same time, considering the formal recognition of the ancient and continuing art of our Indigenous peoples which introduced the performance, I found myself imagining the dancers as the water droplets from those two sources – the 1915 colonial Cotter Dam, and the land known as a place to unwind or relax, with the ancient Ngunnawal title Gugong, maybe some 20,000 years old, with the dam built in 1974.
The dramatic use of lighting and projection of images, including the shadows of the dancers on the rear screen, gives a strong sense of a fourth dimension beyond the ordinary – creating meaning in our own imaginations.
This, to me, is the purpose of art – opening our minds to unexpected possibilities – integrating in ALTER a fascinating choreography of screen visuals with the actions and emotions of the dancing, linked in musically with original sound and rhythm.
This is perhaps the most expressive of Liz Lea’s works that I have seen to date, like a wonderfully complex poem as the elements come together as you read, to form a complete creation: a new whole greater than its parts.
A positive appreciation of life in Canberra, as people bring their children to join in on stage in a warm feeling of togetherness in the finale.
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