CRITICALLY acclaimed composer and performer Cyrus Meurant is collaborating with the National College of Dance (NCD) Lambton, in what has been labelled a major coup for the Hunter.
Meurant - whose work spans theatre, dance, concert hall and the health sector - composed solo piano piece, Sortie, in 2020 and a first movement of sonata for solo violin this year.
NCD creative director Brett Morgan OAM and choreographers Jake Burden, Timothy Gordon and Debbie Ellis Linnert split Sortie and choreographed three sections for NCD's full-time dancers to perform at NCD concert Resurgence on December 17 at the Civic Theatre.
Meurant joined the dancers for rehearsals on Thursday and will play piano and violin on-stage at the concert.
Morgan said it was rare for pre-professional dance students to work with a composer of Meurant's stature and with live music instead of a recording during their training.
"It's everything, it's massive," he said. "Companies, even small companies, don't always get that opportunity because of funding."
Meurant - who usually works to commission for specific projects - experienced delays and cancellations during the pandemic and hasn't performed publicly for two years.
He said he'd had an "open mind" about Sortie's future.
"This piece was my response to the realities of the time, which are 'I can write a piece of piano music at home and play it'," he said.
"Really the piece was born out of my wanting to do something.
"It's French for exit, but in French has a double meaning which means launch as well, so it was that idea of being trapped inside and wanting to leave... it's a bit of optimism."
Meurant sent it to Morgan, who he has collaborated with since 2012. Morgan said he knew Sortie was special when he played it to his two children.
"It calmed them and they were sort of smiling within," he said.
"The piece right from the beginning to me had some sort of magic and some inner beauty."
Meurant received a Create NSW grant and composed the "intense" violin sonata this year, but never expected it to sit between the "dreamy" two halves of Sortie.
"To see it come to life [through choreography] is amazing... it's always a thrill, that. When you're playing and there's real people and things happening it really lifts you so much creatively. The way you listen to the music is changed by seeing the dance."
Morgan said NCD's choreography reflected "hope, celebration and a new beginning".
NCD student Arlie Williams, 17 - who will join Sydney Dance Company's pre-professional program next year - said Meurant's compositions were "enlightening and emotional" and reflected her starting her own new chapter.
"It's my first time dancing with Cyrus and with live music. It's very different, I got goosebumps."
