Dark but unmissable study of a relationship Children/A Few Minutes of Lock stars Patrick Lamothe and Louise Lecavalier. Picture: Tony Lewis Source: Supplied STROBE lights, a high-pitched siren and an amplified rapid beat make for an attention-grabbing start to Children, choreographer Nigel Charnock's feverish interpretation of a relationship that nears breaking point but survives. In a dark tracksuit, Louise Lecavalier enters on all fours, skittering around the all-black stage like some crushable insect; she rolls, lies on her back, runs, jumps, picks up a brass rod, twirls it as a baton, slashes it whistling through the air, turns it into a weapon. The siren and insistent beat begin again, Patrick Lamothe enters, flash-bulb photographing her repeatedly, then leaves. He returns to join her, dancing to Leonard Cohen's Dance Me to the End of Love, setting the theme for an eclectic score including Janis Joplin, Miles Davis and Maria Callas. Lecavalier is lifted, tossed, turned, caught, thrown, movements that elaborate as the relationship develops, deteriorates and recovers. Laughing children and crying babies are heard. The couple dance with pillows, then lie with their heads on them to make love; more sinisterly, they turn the pillowslips into blindfolding hoods. The different sections of the piece are often divided, as here, by the strobe, siren and beat. Now the pair battle with quarter staves, ending with a hug. She flings plastic bottles on to the stage then lines them up; he knocks them flying. They dance without music, their breathing the only sound. Though not even up to his shoulder in height, she sometimes lifts him in a sign of mutual dependency. At times trapped in a rectangle of light, they finally come together in a central spotlight, pour water over each other and sink to the floor before he rises in panic, shaking and lifting up her apparently lifeless body. She then stirs, slides down him and they embrace. Blackout. Creating Children in 2009, Charnock exploited Lecavalier's expressive plasticity, swiftness and fearless physicality developed over the 17 years she was lead dancer for Edouard Lock's company La La La Human Steps. A Few Minutes of Lock give us a rich but tantalisingly brief taste of that time, with excerpts from Salt (1998) and 2 (1995). Strongly partnered by former Lock colleague Keir Knight and joined by Lamothe, both men in black suits, Lecavalier, now 54, dazzles with her intense energy and precise control of movement, from tiny flutterings of her bare feet to aerial caught turns, from dead-sharp stops to purposeful walks and superfast runs. Not to be missed. Tickets: $49-$30. Ends today. DANCE Children/A Few Minutes of Lock Adelaide Festival. Space Theatre. March 6.