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Underland is a full-length work inspired by the music of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. Petronio has built a body of work with high profile artists ranging from Lou Reed and the Beastie Boys to Cindy Sherman and Anish Kapoor – and Underland, commissioned by Graeme Murphy, is no exception.

An ambitious theatrical collaboration, Underland received its world premiere on 27 May 2003 at the Sydney Opera House. Joining Petronio from New York for the project were Tara Subkoff, of the ‘Imitation of Christ’ fashion label, and visual and lighting designer Ken Tabachnick, who worked with Australian video artist Mike Daly. Conversing with Nick Cave on the music landscape for the production were producer Tony Cohen and soundscape artist Paul Healy.

Underland provided Sydney Dance Company’s talented ensemble of dancers with the challenge of mastering Petronio’s highly influential, visceral language in a short creative period – a challenge they met with dazzling results. The dancers perform Petronio’s intricate, angular movement with grace and ease. Described by Petronio as an ‘archaeological dig through some of Nick Cave’s most beautiful masterpieces’, Underland unravels in a series of solos, duets, quartets and asymmetric ensemble formations. The triptych of screens provides a cinematic backdrop to the journey, the mood of which, like Subkoff’s costumes, shifts in rhythm with Cave’s music throughout this frenetically energised dance piece.