This excellent Darwin Symphony Orchestra concert was entitled simply Pictures, and it proved to be apt, reflecting an intriguing cross-artform collaboration with local dance company Slide Youth Dance.

Slide Youth Dance perform during Pictures, with the Darwin Symphony Orchestra.

Slide Youth Dance perform during Pictures, with the Darwin Symphony Orchestra. Image © Tim Nicol.

Though built around Ravel’s famous orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, the program highlighted the talents of young artists from Slide Youth Dance in the first half, backed by a slimmed down DSO ensemble.

In fun, energetic and thought-provoking narratives choreographed by Joanna Noonan, the young dancers created a kaleidoscope of moving pictures exploiting the dynamism of three short works by Bernard Herrmann, Philip Glass and Simon Jeffes of the Penguin Café Orchestra.

After pictures from a bustling city soundscape set to the threatening, jagged strings of Herrmann’s score for the Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho, the young dancers won the audience’s hearts with a lyrical and romantic celebration of the simplicity of childhood, inspired by three scenes from Philip Glass’s Orphée Suite.

A voiceover reminded us that Philip Glass once said he found the impermanence of dance deeply...