Interview with Alexandra Knox and her mother Jennifer Barry Knox.

By Jo McDonald.

It was 1964 on a Sunday afternoon. Fifteen-year-old Jennifer Barry was at a ballet rehearsal when a tall woman with a ponytail came into the studio. She was introduced to the group, and then asked them to take their shoes off and sit on the floor. Some of the dancers were horrified, but for Jennifer, this was a life changing moment that set her on a path to become a pioneer of modern dance in Australia. The woman with the ponytail was Elizabeth Dalman, and Jennifer was one of a group of young dancers who began taking class with Elizabeth. On 10 June 1965, this group of young dancers lead by Dalman became officially known as Australian Dance Theatre (ADT).

Back in the early sixties, there was no contemporary dance in Australia – or modern as it was known then. This changed when Elizabeth Dalman returned to Australia after working in Europe with choreographers like Eleo Pomare, a Columbian-American choreographer. The experiences Dalman brought home with her were to ignite a passion for modern dance in the hearts of young ballet students like Jennifer, who now had the opportunity to learn the techniques of the modern dance greats, such as Martha Graham, Jose Limon and Lester Horton.

Now, almost 50 years later, Jennifer’s daughter, Alexandra, is also immersed in the world of professional dance. But she finds herself in a very different world than that of 15-year-old Jennifer.

Based in Adelaide, after moving from Melbourne a couple of years ago, Alexandra is fresh from the premiere season of her first full-length work Cor during the Adelaide Fringe Festival. Cor was made possible thanks to a $15,000 Choreolab residency, an incubator program for emerging choreographers run by Ausdance SA. The Choreolab Residency program was funded through a grant from the Australia Council for the Arts.

Photo by Chris Herzfeld.

Alexandra is one of many young, passionate independent dance artists based in Adelaide, who aren’t just looking for work, but are creating their own work. The environment in Adelaide is conducive to the rise of the independent artist, with the Arts SA Independent Makers & Presenters grant programs and Ausdance SA’s strong focus on supporting independent artists through Choreolab, which provides freelance class programs, cheap rehearsal space, grant auspicing and advice. SA independent choreographers can also benefit from the Managing and Producing Services (MAPS) program of the Australia Council, which sees Insite Arts appointed to produce and manage new dance works so they can create, present and tour their work. Other Australian high-profile choreographers that call Adelaide home are Leigh Warren, Larissa McGowan, Katrina Lazaroff and Gabrielle Nankivell.

Back in the days of Jennifer’s early dance career, there were no arts grants. In fact, ADT didn’t receive its first grant (for $5,000) until 1971. The company had been surviving until then on fundraising, donations and Elizabeth’s private funds, yet had managed to tour extensively, including international tours to Europe, New Guinea, India and Thailand.

These days, dance artists looking to fund their own work need to be savvy grant writers. Alexandra has found the process of applying for grants to be quite useful, in helping her distil her ideas and find her own voice, although she is aware that for many dancers, writing grants is neither a pleasant or easy process, although some are quite good at it. This is perhaps due, in part, to their tertiary training. Jennifer notes that dancers these days are well educated, and this is something else that differs from her early experience, when there were no tertiary dance programs. Whereas now, there are tertiary dance programs at numerous institutions, such as AC Arts in Adelaide, the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), Queensland University of Technology (QUT), NAISDA[1] College, Deakin University, Macquarie University … the list goes on.

Alexandra herself is a graduate of the VCA. Fortunately, in the sixties, there was Elizabeth who brought her knowledge back from Europe. Ultimately, this meant that when Jennifer travelled to New York in 1968, she was able to walk into any class and hold her own. In one class, she recalls another dancer being mistaken for the ‘Australian girl’ because Jennifer was so well-versed in modern dance that she didn’t stand out from the American students as any less experienced.

So why is Alexandra following in her mother’s footsteps? Is it simply because she was exposed to so much dance, or is it in her genes?

‘Cor’ being performed at Adelaide Fringe Festival. Photo by Chris Herzfeld.

Jennifer recalls being 4 years old when she made the decision to become a dancer. In those days, choosing to be a professional dancer was very unusual, and she found herself ridiculed at school for her choice. But at home, her mother was very supportive and encouraged her to fulfil her dreams. She was adopted, so she doesn’t know if her biological parents were artistic, but she does know she was the first person in her adopted family who had any interest in the arts. So it seems that for Jennifer at least, dancing is in her blood.

Jennifer also recalls Alexandra as a one-year old child sitting in her chair, wiggling her bottom in time to the music, and thinking to herself, “Aha, I have a dancer.” It’s harder to tell if Alexandra’s passion is nature or nurture – probably both. Apparently she was always dancing as a child, improvising mostly, and Jennifer and Alexandra would dance and improvise together every night. The first work that Alexandra presented in Adelaide was a fully improvised work, Wyrd With Grace, which she first presented at the 2011 Melbourne Fringe Festival, then the October 2011 Choreolab, and again at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2012.

Alexandra had her first professional gig at the age of 6, dancing with her mother in Meryl Tankard’s Corte a Flora, presented for Floriade in Canberra. Jennifer had never imagined that she would be dancing at age 43 with her daughter in the same production. Alexandra was a pincushion and Jennifer a flower. This experience exposed Alexandra to the world of professional dance and one of Australia’s great choreographers, but also gave her the chance to work with some of Australia’s best contemporary dancers, including Tuula Roppola, Paige Gordon and Michelle Ryan. Alexandra describes the experience as “overwhelming, like an oversize dream coming to life”, but she was inspired by these amazing women who had a great acting ability and dance training.

Both Jennifer and Alexandra have returned to Adelaide to be with their mother.  Jennifer has been a gypsy most of her life, and she wants to spend time with her mother, who is now 95.  After her adopted father passed away when she was ten, it was just Jennifer and her mother, so they are very close. Alexandra is also an only child, and has come to Adelaide to be close to her mother. Their close bond is obvious, and there is a great warmth and gentleness between them. They both share the same eyes – a clear and beautiful green – and an absolute necessity to dance.

Alexandra, on the brink of an exciting dance and choreographic career, is now in the midst of writing a grant application for a new work for Next Wave in Melbourne with AC Arts recent graduate Alicia Min Harvie, and she is working in June and July with Adelaide choreographer Katrina Lazaroff on her new work Wasted.

Jennifer is currently writing a book on her experience during her time with ADT, which also includes content based on interviews from other ADT dancers at the time.  It will be titled Dirty Feet, inspired by a comment Sir Robert Helpmann made to Jennifer at a party – he said that modern dancers were fat, they can’t do classical ballet, and they have dirty feet. Since then, Jennifer has always been careful to wash her feet before a performance. It is perhaps ironic that Alexandra worked with Sydney-based contemporary dance organisation DirtyFeet, which supports independent dance artists and promotes community engagement in the arts.

It will be ADT’s 50th anniversary in 2015, so it is timely that Jennifer is writing a book about the dancers’ perspective. Various events are in the pipeline for the anniversary celebration. Wouldn’t it be amazing to see Alexandra dance in the 50th anniversary in a role created for her mother?

[1] NAISDA is the National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association

Photo (top): Alexandra Knox and her mother Jennifer Barry Knox. Photo by Jo McDonald.

By Rain Francis.

“It’s just like Holland!” Anouk van Dijk exclaims cheerfully as she arrives at the Chunky Move studios. It’s 10:30am in late February and Melbourne is doing that thing where – after a prolonged streak of stifling weather – it’s really, really raining.

Van Dijk and I are meeting up today to talk about her new work for Chunky Move, 247 Days, which will premiere at the Merlyn Theatre on March 15. The new creation will be her second work as Artistic Director, having taken over from Gideon Obarzanek last year. Her 2012 work An Act of Now was a huge success, or in her words, “a total blast. Very outgoing, very site-specific and with lots of people involved. It was really an event.”

Presented as part of the Melbourne Festival, An Act of Now won best new Australian work in The Age Critic Awards. From van Dijk’s perspective, it was an excellent way to begin work with a new group of collaborators, to break her into her new role in a new country – and now the time has come to go deeper.

Chunky Move in ’247 Days’

“I have to start looking at things from different perspectives, inevitably,” she explains. “Moving to the other side of the world, moving to another culture, how do you communicate with people? In Europe, we all speak English with each other because that’s the only language we can all share. You develop a particular kind of language together, which people call ‘eurenglish’. For the last couple of months, I’ve been trying to understand how to speak English here.”

This question of communication and human interaction forms the basis of 247 Days. Van Dijk is interested in how we view the world, and how the world views us. “Do we behave as expected, or accept who we truly are?” asks the press release for 247 Days. “If we could observe ourselves in an unguarded moment, what would we see?”

To begin finding answers to these questions, van Dijk and her dancers made “a few thousand beautiful pictures” with celebrated dance photographer Jeff Busby, who also collaborated on An Act of Now. These images, amongst other devices, became the inspiration which has informed the choreography.

“I wanted to literally capture a moment in time, so we started to make photographs of people in movement; the dancers, their families, their friends, the staff, their families,” says van Dijk. “I wanted to capture these moments when people are taken off guard, or about to recover from something or surrendering into something. For me, this also stands for this moment in time, the discovery process we’re in.”

The cast of 247 Days includes five dancers from An Act of Now and one new addition, Tara Soh, formerly of Australian Dance Theatre. All in their early or mid-twenties, they are at a point of discovering new ways of moving and new ways of thinking about dance, van Dijk explains. “They are all discovering certain things for the first time and becoming aware of certain patterns and mechanisms, in themselves and in society. It’s a really exciting departure point for a dialogue, for all of us,” she says.

Part of the dancers’ discoveries can be attributed to learning Countertechnique, a method of thinking and a practice that van Dijk has developed over the past 20 years. The basic principle is that, rather than working with a ‘centre’, one works with energy directions. Every direction has an opposite and the two of them together create the balance. This application of this idea results in more freedom in the joints, freedom of mobility, ease of directional changes, and the ability to retain speed, momentum and balance. “That’s the mechanics we work with, and I’ve developed a toolbox full of practical knowledge the dancers can use in order to achieve this,” says van Dijk. “It enables them to be more proactive in their training, to deal with injuries better… and it makes movement less exhausting.”

247 Days is being presented as part of Dance Massive, a bi-annual festival of contemporary choreography. It’s an intoxicating time for Melbourne dance fans, with works being presented by Stephanie Lake, Larissa McGowan, Lucy Guerin, Antony Hamilton, Jo Lloyd and many others. “I would like to see everything,” van Dijk says emphatically. “That’s very frustrating, because in the first week I can’t see anything. It’s a really exciting way for me to get to know, in a short amount of time, many Australian artists that I don’t know yet.”

The spirit of curiosity, exploration and discovery is all around her, it seems. She left her European homeland last year to take up the coveted post of Artistic Director, the first person to take the helm of a much-loved company after the founders. So, while it also means “what’s going on in people’s consciousness 24/7”, the title of her new work also stands for the amount of time she has been in Australia.

As we head into Spring, these stifling days will become a memory, documented in part by a dance work created to capture the moment. And, with the next 247 days of van Dijk’s journey sure to bring more of our famous weather, I’m sure she will feel right at home in Melbourne.

247 Days by Chunky Move
Friday March 15 – Saturday March 23
Merlyn Theatre, The Malthouse
www.dancemassive.com.au

Top photo: Anouk van Dijk by Silvia Sztankovits

By Linda Badger.

With an enviable career, Kristina Chan is one of Australia’s foremost independent dance artists. Having worked with so many of Australia’s most influential contemporary and classical companies and choreographers, Kristina won the Australian Dance Award for  Outstanding Female Dancer in 2009 for her work in Tanja Liedtke’s Construct. She has taught in many dance companies, universities, dance institutions and the like and is an artist to watch, and be inspired by.  Even after many years of a full career, Kristina is still at her peak as a dancer and collaborator, seemingly going from strength to strength with each project.

Dance Informa’s Linda Badger had the opportunity to ask her a few questions about her work and career.

You began serious dance study with full-time classical ballet. Was that the path you thought you wanted to take?

I started ballet at the age of three and then did a full-time classical ballet course in 1994 and 1995. I thought that I wanted to pursue classical ballet, but halfway into the course I discovered contemporary dance and found that it was more suited to me. I found it much more inspiring and engaging.

What have been the formative moments in your career?

Getting my first professional job with Australian Dance Theatre in 1999 probably kicked me into gear and was a big learning curve for me at the age of 19.

Working with Tanja Liedtke – her dedication and vigour was admirable and inspiring. I learnt a lot from working with her. (Kristina was one of the key dancers in Liedtke’s creative team, working closely with her as a dancer and a collaborator on both of Liedtke’s full length productions, Twelfth Floor and Construct.)

There have been many formative moments and hopefully more to come.

Where are you currently based and what are you working on?

I’m based in Sydney, however work takes me all over the place. I am currently in Singapore Airport waiting to board my flight to Budapest where I will be touring with Chunky Move.

Kristina Chan performs in ‘In Glass’ at Spring Dance 2010. Photo by Ian Bird.

What is the most interesting work you have been involved in?

Because I freelance, my work is constantly shifting with each project I am involved in – that is the most interesting part.

What has been the biggest challenge in your career?

Performing at Tanja Liedtke’s funeral tribute. That was difficult, strange and surreal.

How do you prepare for a role?

With each role comes different preparation. I may work on a piece for several months, researching and creating material for a role. Other times I have to jump into an existing work with only a week to learn and hopefully develop my own feel for it.  It’s a completely different process, but I try my best to give as much as I can to the process so that I can perform it well and not just dance the steps.

What are your influences?

Visual art, movies, music, nature, peers – everything in your life influences you in some way or another.

You have such a captivating stage presence, how have you developed this?
I really am interested in exploring how movement is executed, with less emphasis on what the moves are.  Dance as an experience for both myself as the performer and hopefully, you as the audience.

How do you overcome disappointment in your career?

Put the past behind you… And what could be that disappointing when you have a career in what you love to do?

What is your favourite and least favourite type of choreographic process?
Least favourite would have to be a process in which the choreographer would give me all the choreographic material, it’s quite an old school method of making dance work. I much prefer to be in a collaborative process where the performers are included in the making of the work and get to contribute their own creative ideas. In saying that, I have worked with directors that ask you to create basically everything and don’t seem to contribute much themselves. A balance is ideal.

You created a piece for the IO Myers Studio which was shown at Spring Dance festival this year. Are you moving into choreography as a next step in your career, or was that just something you decided to do for that particular show?

Choreography is definitely a progression in my career but I am by no means labeling myself as a choreographer, not for now anyway. I am still very interested in performing in other peoples’ work. I am looking to find a mix of the two.

Would you ever create a full-length work? What would it be about?

I recently made my first full length work, Kingdom Mourning, on the third year students at Adelaide College of the Arts. In the work I looked at the relationship between an abstract world and it’s inhabitants, the community within it, both as a group/pack and the individuality within the group.

If you could dance with any company, which would it be?

I am very happy freelancing.

By Rain Francis.

State Theatre
June 9, 2012

The best dance companies from all over the country assembled at Arts Centre Melbourne for The Australian Ballet’s 50^th anniversary gala, and it was an absolute treat. The variety of offerings truly showcased the depth and breadth of artistry nationwide; there really was something for every audience member – unless your thing is tutus, because there wasn’t one in sight.

The evening kicked off with the West Australian Ballet’s, Ombra Leggera, choreographed by Artistic Director Ivan Cavallari. It was performed by Daryl Brandwood and Andre Santos, two very different dancers who worked together beautifully. Quick, playful and a bit cheeky, this light-hearted duet was a superb display of technique.

By contrast, Don’t by Brisbane’s Expressions Dance Company was dark and powerful; an “exploration of the emotional power of words”. Dramatically lit and costumed in monochrome, it depicted three couples and their struggles to communicate. From the opening solo under a dappled spotlight, to the electrifying partner work, Don’t was engaging from start to finish.

Tasdance presented a short film, Momentary by choreographer Anna Smith. I was excited to see this offering from our friends across the Strait, although this perhaps wasn’t the best setting for the film. It was hypnotic and mysterious, but I think some quality was lost somewhere along the way – projecting onto the big screen did not seem to do it any justice.

Unsurprisingly, it was Australian Dance Theatre that brought the most innovative present to the party. They performed an excerpt of Be Your Self – an exploration of the human body and the concept of the ‘self’. Whatever combination of methodologies they are getting into over in Adelaide these days, it is a winning one – these performers are verging on superhuman. Having now seen two excerpts of this incredible work on the State Theatre stage, I hope Melbourne will be honoured with the full shebang sometime soon.

Dancenorth presented a brand new work, Fugue, choreographed by Artistic Director Raewyn Hill.   Inspired by Spanish bullfighting and the “dancing plague” of 1518 (where people allegedly danced themselves to death), Hill set out to “embody both a feeling of relentless and a communal experience.” This was achieved through the use of unison; the cast of eight moved in a constant swarm – which is no mean feat, especially in a piece so athletically challenging. The Sass & Bide costuming, although glamorous, seemed to swallow the dancers up and detracted from the intricacy of the movement. Ravel’s masterpiece Bolero, with its gradually building energy and repetitive structure was a fine choice to express the themes of the dance.

Another high point of the evening was Queensland Ballet’s excerpts from Cloudland, choreographed by Artistic Director Francois Klaus. The two pas de deux were performed flawlessly by Rachael Walsh and Keian Langdon, to Almost Like Being in Love and No Moon At All. Normally not a fan of choreography to music with lyrics, I was not bothered in this case, perhaps because I was swept up in the romance and pure beauty of the dance.

An excerpt from Rafael Bonachela’s 2 One Another, Sydney Dance Company’s contribution to the programme was, as expected, technically exquisite. The work explored human interaction, although the stimulus had been abstracted to a point where this fact became largely unrecognisable. Still, the combination of phenomenal dancers, innovative choreography, powerful music and beautiful costumes, lighting and staging made this another winner from Sydney Dance Company.

Tim Harbour’s new work for The Australian Ballet, Sweedeedee, painted a sentimental picture of a family. It was performed with grace and charm by beloved former Principal Artists, Justine Summers and Stephen Heathcote, as well as two Australian Ballet School students, Lennox Niven and Mia Heathcote, Stephen’s daughter. The stage was set (by Benjamin Cisterne) with an oversized washing line complete with white sheets, which were worked effectively into the choreography. Harbour’s movement in this piece was refreshingly uncomplicated, with clean lines and a gentle pace. Funny, sad and sweet, the stories it told were enriched by folk songs played live, with the Musical Direction of Chong Lim. Lexi George’s costumes were a standout, as was the magnificent lighting by Cisterne.

In his programme note, Artistic Director David McAllister cited David Bowie as the inspiration for the naming of this gala. Let’s Dance confirmed that dance is very much alive and well in this country. And judging by the spectrum of creativity and skill in the industry, it seems that Australian dance is set, like Mr. Bowie, to continue to reinvent itself, and only get better with age.

Top photo: Sydney Dance Company presents 2 One Another.

By Rain Francis.

A little over three years ago, household dance fans across the country sat biting their nails as they waited to see who would win the third season of So You Think You Can Dance Australia. But having made it to that stage meant that Jess Hesketh was already winning: her dream was about to come true. Crowned runner-up of the reality TV show, Jess was awarded one of the most coveted posts in the dance world – a contract with Australian Dance Theatre.

After a decade of adoring the Adelaide-based contemporary company, just knowing that the contract was available helped Jess propel herself through the competition. Even now, having worked with the company since September 2010, she says it’s “still a bit surreal”.

ADT is currently rehearsing to take its acclaimed work Be Your Self to Sydney, as well as performing an excerpt in Let’s Dance, a gala season that is part of The Australian Ballet’s 50^th anniversary.

Jess in rehearsals with ADT. Photos by Chris Herzfeld

Be Your Self draws on investigations into neurobiology and Buddhist philosophy. These two positions in one sense are worlds apart, in another, they are two sides of one coin: the science of poetry – or the poetry of science. To use Jess’ own eloquent description of the work, “it cross-examines the vast complexity of who we are and what we’re made of. It really looks into the subject of selfhood. Not only the physical aspects, but the emotional aspect of what makes us human, and how the physical and emotional sides do work together to create us as humans.”

As with all of ADT’s works, Be Your Self, with its fusion of contemporary dance, breaking and tumbling, is incredibly demanding physically. However, Jess says that the emotional side of the work is equally challenging. In the research stages, Artistic Director and Choreographer Garry Stewart consulted with Professor of Physiology Ian Gibbons from the Flinders Medical Centre. The insights he shared into the neurobiological functions of the body have greatly informed the work. The result? An added depth and dimension to the movement, which Jess says she is “really attached to”.

To add yet another dimension, Stewart engaged leading design studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro to create a set piece. The cutting-edge New York-based firm are responsible for multi-million dollar architectural projects, such as the complete refurbishment of the Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts, and the expansion of the School of American Ballet. With their backgrounds in the visual arts, DS+R like to, as Stewart says “keep one foot in the arts” and “were kind enough to lend their support to Be Your Self”. The resulting set piece seeks to reconstruct our perspective on the body.

Jess in rehearsals for 'Proximity'

Be Your Self is in fact the first piece that Jess worked on when joining the company. At that time, the work had already been created, however the whole second half was about to undergo a drastic revamp. This would be Jess’s first real experience not only as a professional dancer, but as a creative collaborator in the developmental stages of a dance theatre work – a role she still finds challenging.

“Creating and choreographing are areas that I haven’t really delved into a lot throughout my training,” she explains, adding that she is grateful to the familial atmosphere at ADT. “The other dancers are awesome. They’re so supportive and they’re always helping me and giving me tips. It’s almost like my own personal choreography lesson every time I have to make up a new solo.”

With the freshly developed Be Your Self in their arsenal, the formidable ADT embarked on a three-month European tour early in 2011. Returning home, they collaborated with visual artist Thom Buchanan and third year students of the Adelaide College of the Arts on a new multi-media project titled Worldhood. Next, they developed and performed Proximity, in conjunction with French video engineer and artist Thomas Pachoud. After the current season of Be Your Self, it will be back to Proximity for another European adventure.

“It’s just one thrill after another,” says Jess. “I’m living my dream. ADT is something that I’ve wanted to do for such a long time. Actually being here and being part of these amazing  productions is a heap of fun every day.”

And it seems she has fit well into her new home. Stewart calls Jess “a really beautiful dancer with incredible facility, remarkable versatility and the ability to do anything that she puts her mind to.” He adds that it has been “interesting with her coming up through the commercial field and through television, but that has given her a lot of ability to connect with a performative presence.”

Another thing that television exposure gave her, Jess says, is a diverse wealth of experience. She acknowledges that after full-time training, dancers and other artists often find it difficult to find work and transition into developing themselves professionally. “Having SYTYCD was the perfect bridge to close that gap,” she says. “It opened so many doors for me. The amount of choreographers that I was exposed to and I got to work with on the show was just incredible. It set me up for a great start – and the ball continues to roll.”

Australian Dance Theatre’s Be Your Self Sydney premiere season
31 May – 3 June
Sydney Theatre at Walsh Bay

Published by Dance Informa dance magazine -covering dance in Australia, dance training, dance auditions, dance teacher resources, dancewear and fashion and more.

Australian Dance Theatre is getting ready to present the world premiere of their new work, Proximity as part of Adelaide Festival this month. Choreographer and ADT Artistic Director Garry Stewart has worked with Paris-based video engineer Thomas Pachoud (with the support of didascalie.net) to create an astonishing dialogue for dance and real-time video manipulation.

Here Garry Stewart talks with Dance Informa about the creation of this exciting new work.

What research did you undertake to develop the work?

My reading has been centred on aspects of neuroscience as well as philosophy of the self and technology within performance.

Professor Ian Gibbins from the Flinders Medical Centre came into ADT to speak to us about aspects of neurobiology, particularly in relation to neurological body mapping and the function of the nervous system in perception. He subsequently invited us to examine preserved cadavers in his laboratory at Flinders Medical Centre. Some of the dancers and I also attended a lecture by Baroness Susan Greenfield on the neurobiology of creativity.

What is the idea behind Proximity?

To a degree Proximity is the convergence point between conceptual concerns rising out of two of my previous works: Held and Be Your Self. Aesthetically both of these works are wildly different from each other, yet in Proximity I have created a nexus between the intellectual parameters of the two. Like Held, Proximity involves the instantaneous reproduction of the live dancing body, but instead of through the media of digital photography, in Proximity it is achieved via video technology.  The dancers train video cameras on each other and this data is immediately transformed through the ingenious work of video engineer Thomas Pachoud. The imagery is projected immediately onto a series of large scale screens, constituting an instantaneous dialogue for digital imagery and the live dancing body. The interaction between the virtual and the real is the cornerstone of Proximity.

Photos © Chris Herzfeld - Camlight Productions

Moreover, Proximity is informed by philosophical considerations of selfhood – its underlying plurality and fluidity – as well as ideas from neuroscience on the process by which the body neurologically interacts with the world around it. Proximity renders visible our invisible connections between each other and the environment we inhabit whilst simultaneously splitting open the self to reflect upon its manifold and heterogenous nature.

In Proximity the subject of selfhood is considered from the position that we are subjects located within our own bodies, but through the doppelganger of video imagery we can see ourselves from the outside and at a distance. Proximity addresses perception and ways of seeing. The act of seeing is conditioned and trained. What our brain chooses to see from the limitless panorama of external stimuli around us constitutes a form of trained blindness. In Proximity the cameras are utilised as a tool to radically shift the frame through which we routinely and habitually engage in the perception of ourselves and each other. The body is re-presented in ways that release it into alternate visual and morphological possibilities.

Tell us about the soundtrack.

The sound score is being composed by Sydney based composer Hugh Benjamin. Hugh used to be a drummer in the 80s and 90s and played for Yothu Yindi, Debra Conway, Kate Cerebrano and many other artists. He has composed music for works I have made for Ballet Du Rhin and Birmingham Royal Ballet. Recently he composed the score for the ADT work Worldhood. The music is quite different to my other works which have been at times quite brutal and bombastic. The music for Proximity is much finer and detailed, soft electronica almost like a series of ambience sonic states rather than hard, beats driven music.

How have you found working with Thomas Pachoud?

I first met Thomas early last year when I was making a version of The Rite of Spring for the Ballet Du Rhin in France. Our collaboration together on this work formed the cornerstone of the video ideas we have pursued and evolved in Proximity. Thomas considers himself a video engineer not a video artist. He enjoys collaborating with artists and responding technically to their artistic ideas.

Thomas’ work is perfectly aligned with the conceptual pursuits of this work. The materials of the body itself are used to stimulate the production of video effects that surround the image of the bodies or in some way manipulate and alter the morphology of the image of dancers. Thomas’ real time video effects become a beautiful visual metaphor for the subject matter which centres on opening up ideas about the nature of self and the invisible neurological connections that exist between ourselves and the world around us.

Do you plan to tour the work?

The plan is to tour the work internationally early in 2013.

Make sure you catch Proximity at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide from February 25 to March 3. Tickets can be bought at BASS online or by calling 131 246.

Photos: Chris Herzfeld – Camlight Productions

Sport and dance have long been regarded as competitors but it may just be that they are on the same team these days.

By Paul Ransom.

Remember all that stuff they told you about how jogging or playing basketball was bad for you? Well, suppose it wasn’t? 

Since the 1980s huge advances have been made in sport specific training, recovery programmes and injury management and it is clear now that much of this new expertise is in the process of crossing over into the dance world. Indeed, the old chasm between sport and dance is rapidly narrowing.

Physiotherapist Michael Heyman is perhaps emblematic of this change, working as he does in both elite sport and professional dance. Heyman not only runs the rule over star footballers with Port Power in the AFL but consults with the world renowned Adelaide based Australian Dance Theatre (ADT).

“I think that dance and sport are more similar than they are different. If you look at both there are technical aspects, the skills that need to be learned, the psychological aspects of performance and even nutritional requirements,” he argues. “The wise old heads say that you shouldn’t go jogging because of the aesthetic impacts but I think that’s a flawed idea because developing fitness and general athletic ability can really enhance technique.”

Over at the Australian Ballet, principal physiotherapist Susan Mayes suggests that although sport does pose some risks to a dancer it can also be highly beneficial. “One of the main considerations when recommending an elite dancer’s participation in sport is the risk of injury,” she begins. “At the elite level, dance is their career, their livelihood and their dream and any injury may be a potential risk to their performance.” 

However, the positives are significant. “Having said that,” she continues, “cross training and different activities can provide a benefit in terms of general fitness and challenge which can enhance the dancer’s wellbeing.”

Michael Heyman is even more specific in his choice of sporting activities for dancers. Citing gymnastics and figure skating as having rather obvious parallels, his best advice is tennis. “It’s great,” he enthuses. “Burst of power, volley, run, stop, go get the ball, reset, go again. In terms of the energy systems and the amount of physical work, they’re actually not too dissimilar.”  

From up on stage ADT dancer Larissa McGowan is well positioned to offer a performer’s perspective, having grown up playing a variety of sports, which ultimately nurtured an ambition to compete in athletics at the Olympics. However, once she made the switch to dance, certain changes were required.

“I kept running through my university training days and continued once joining ADT,” she recalls, “but I had to start to pull back a bit as it shortened my hamstrings slightly making it harder to pull up the leg in ballet. It also bulked up my thighs and gluteus which, when too big, hamper some rotation range.”

McGowan would of course be participating in Michael Heyman’s regular forty minute circuit training sessions at ADT headquarters; a routine he has developed specifically to meet the bend, stretch and twirl needs of the dancer.

“In sport you might have key requirements like strength, power, flexibility and balance but a lot of them are also the key requirements for dance,” Heyman declares. “One way of thinking of dancers is as aesthetic athletes. If you’re backing up night after night the physiological and fitness aspects are just as important as the skill component. You can’t keep doing the dance unless you’re fit enough and strong enough to do it.”

Susan Mayes is happy to concur, noting that each show comes with its own set of physical requirements. “Gym programmes should be individualised so that both male and female dancers focus on specific areas which will be loaded during the performance season,” she says simply. “At The Australian Ballet we analyse the potential injury risks of the upcoming repertoire and design specific exercise programs for the dancer’s role in a particular ballet.”

However, beneath the particulars of exercise regimes and sporting preferences there is one clear synergy. According to Mayes, “The worlds of elite sports and dance are exceptionally competitive, due to the level at which they perform and the relatively small numbers of professional positions available. Dancers are very often perfectionists; and with this quality comes a great competitive nature, and like athletes, they strive to achieve a great performance every time they’re onstage.”

Larissa McGowan is certainly glad to have grown up doing sport. “My sporting background has sculpted my body and strengthened it over the years, allowing me to continue dancing for the past ten years with only minor injuries.”

In conclusion, it appears that much of the remaining sport/dance schism is largely cultural, a leftover from old ways of thinking and doing. As Michael Heyman observes, “All sports and activities have a certain culture around them. Footballers behave in certain way because footballers in the past behaved that way and for dancers it’s no different.”

The message, it seems, is quite clear. Dancers wishing to maintain a level of performance and reduce injury can be well served by targeted fitness training and even the odd set of tennis. You might even say that the ball is in their court.

Photo: © Stephen Coburn | Dreamstime.com

ADT Assistant Choreographer Larissa McGowan shares her choreographic tips on the eve of their August Ignition season.

By Deborah Searle. 

Curated by Australian Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Garry Stewart, Ignition is a program of new works choreographed and performed by the ADT dancers, in addition to the world premiere of a new work by Melbourne based choreographer Antony Hamilton.  As Australians debate in their lounge rooms the latest routines on their favourite dancing show, Australian Dance Theatre’s annual Ignition season takes on a new space and audience in 2010 by questioning what is dance and can anyone do it?

Accomplished, cutting edge choreographer, Larissa McGowan shares her insights into what makes dance and how choreographers can succeed at their art. 

This Ignition program is called ‘But is it really dance?’ What is ‘dance’ to you?
I’m not exactly sure. It keeps changing and evolving. I think that is why the question has been posed for this years’ Ignition theme. In order to understand what we do and further progress, we need to push our ideas and challenge our reasons. I am, however, discovering what I am interested in along the way. I suppose that dance for me is about finding ways my body and other bodies haven’t moved before. Playing with the human form and seeing how far it can go, or even, how little you need to do to create an interesting image or emotional value in a movement. A work is shaped dynamically with highs and lows to create a flow that keeps an audience member interested. So all types of movement can have value within a bigger picture.

When creating choreography what should artists do first? 
It is really up to what stimulates you at the beginning of your creative process.
Pick music: Music is a great tool to influence a style of moving and sometimes evokes a response in the genre of the music. Don’t we all have a groove to a track we like?
Create the steps: Sometimes just improvising will ignite a new pathway. Or by setting movement first, you can manipulate and play with it down the track.
Pick a theme: A theme does tend to help contain your ideas and focus your research within a context.

Ignition by ADT

What would you recommend? How do you first create?
Each process changes for me. I find random things stimulate ideas when you don’t expect it. Sometimes you go into a work not knowing what it will be and at some point in the process it finds a clearer path. I love to challenge my own body pathways, so this creates interesting and new ways of moving.

Does a work always have to have a theme or story?
An audience likes to understand something within a work to read into. However, this doesn’t mean it has to be narrative. You can evoke emotions through dance that can be accessible to audiences and allows them to find their own personal connection to a work. I think space in a work allows an audience to imagine, and question its effect on them.

Should choreography be about the audience or the art?
I think it should be able to access both. Others push these boundaries, but I have always felt that by placing it on stage and in front of an audience, you are placing it as a spectacle to be observed. It doesn’t mean you make movement for a particular audience, but I hope the audience receives a performance that challenges their ideas and creates an emotional response.

How do you inspire dancers to develop unique and interesting choreography?
Opening up and listening to each other’s ideas creates a wonderful collaborative space, which naturally allows ideas that otherwise wouldn’t have been found. Communicating and remembering that everything that goes into a creative process is worth trying, to find what you really want to portray.

Ignition 2010 will have five performances in the Space Theatre, Adelaide from August 18^th to 21^st, as well as a one night season in the Murray Bridge Town Hall.

The Ignition program is generously supported by Beach Energy and co-produced by the Adelaide Festival Centre’s inSPACE program and Country Arts South Australia’s Ripples Murray Bridge program. 

For more information visit www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au or www.adt.org.au

Ignition
Adelaide
Date: 18th – 21st August at 8pm & 21st August at 4pm
Venue: Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre
Contact: BASS on 131 246 or online at www.bass.net.au
Murray Bridge
Date:  Thursday 26th August at 8pm
Venue: Murray Bridge Town Hall
Contact: 8539 1100

Win a Double Pass to Ignition! Click here

Photos: Chris Herzfeld

ADT’s premiere season of public classes opens the door on contemporary life … and dance.

By Paul Ransom

What if you could dance with the stars? The dance denizens of Adelaide now have that chance because ADT (Australian Dance Theatre) has announced that it will now run public classes at its Belair Road studios.

Following in the footsteps of Melbourne’s Chunky Move and Sydney Dance Company, ADT are among a growing number of contemporary companies to lift up the curtains and engage more directly with their public.

“Up until now we haven’t been able to share what we do other than through performance; and there’s never really been an opportunity to create, to a professional standard, a good education programme,” states Carol Welman-Kelly, ADT’s erstwhile Assistant Director and the driving force behind the new programme.

“With the rise of ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ and other such programmes there’s a huge public interest,” she adds. “So this really is the perfect opportunity to say, ‘okay, doors are open, come in and get a handle on what it is we do’.”

Photography Chris Herzfeld

Of course, public classes don’t merely break the fourth wall. In fact, Welman-Kelly hopes the programme will make the company’s dancers seem more human. “I’m really excited that the dancers want to be involved,” she enthuses, “because then there’s this experience where you see these dancers on stage and you can say ‘hey, I know that person’. You get more of a personal feel … and I think that can make watching a performance much more fulfilling.”

One of the teachers, Chris Aubrey, has been an ADT dancer since late 2007. He takes the point further. “It’ll make us seem more approachable. People find that ADT can be quite intimidating and if they walk in and realise that we’re just normal people, that will be a great thing.”

ADT associate choreographer Larissa McGowan repeats the chorus. “It’s really good to be inviting people into our space because it’s going to let them get to know us, so they can work out how we choreograph and how we move.”

But stop right there. This is far more than a PR exercise. By presenting a range of short, four week ‘blocks’ (including classes in contemporary technique, hip-hop and dance fit), the company is offering students a diverse and dynamic range of learning opportunities.

“It’s all about doing, not just the watching,” Carol Welman-Kelly explains. “It’s also about taking bite size chunks rather than committing to some huge thing.”

Apart from the obvious benefits to class participants, these short courses will also help the dancers enormously. The old adage ‘the teacher by the student learns’ certainly applies here.

As Larissa McGowan elaborates, “I seriously think that dancers who still teach learn a lot faster and are able to understand their bodies. I always say that teaching is one of the hardest things but that you learn more about yourself by doing it.”

Chris Aubrey is in complete agreement. “The more teaching you do, the more you’re learning about your own body. Even though you’re teaching others, you’re teaching yourself.”

However, for dancers used to the often cosseted world of contemporary, having to mingle with the un-auditioned public could well be a challenge. Fortunately for McGowan, she has plenty of experience teaching. 

“You need to be able to work with the people on the spot and try to understand them as you go,” she outlines. “With this type of class it’s like throwing everyone into the boiling pot and seeing what happens. Also, as dancers in the company we are constantly teaching each other, so I think the main thing here is that we can share some of what we’ve learnt over our careers, as well as something of what we’re still learning at the moment.”

So, much as dancing with soapie celebrities and rock stars might seem like a fun TV concept, dancing with the stars of one of Australia’s top ranked companies sounds like a much better idea.

For more information about ADT’s new open classes visit www.adt.org.au

Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide
February 27^th

By Deborah Searle.

Be Your Self is a display of the body’s form and function.  A raw and thought provoking work, Be Your Self investigates the body as a machine and discusses what makes us human? What is self?

The dancing is very isolated and exact, breaking movement down into each small twitch of muscle, tendon or bone. A section where the dancers move each individual body part to a sound score that sounds like creaking and breaking bones, is haunting, yet captivating. The audience is mesmerized as such simple movement is expressed in such an edgy way. There is nothing pretty about it, but Garry Stewart was obviously not trying to create a work that is pleasing to the eye, but one that is real and explorative.

Larissa McGowan, who is also the assistant choreographer for this work, is made for her role. She is so precise and so engaging. All the dancers are brilliant technicians and their unison is almost always exact. Troy Honeysett is a force to be reckoned with, commanding the stage with his acrobatic and martial arts inspired leaps and tumbles. He throws his body with abandon, yet precision.

At one stage the dancers all stand in a line and just breathe deeply, as we can see their chests expand and contract. It is such simple movement, yet we are all engrossed. There is something unique about what Garry has created with Be Your Self.

The work is quite sterile, without much emotion or expression by the dancers, as it deconstructs the body, movement, human moods and thoughts. At times the dancers scream, sending shivers down my spine, or they shake and stare. It is incredibly un-nerving. A section where the dancers display different moods, such as happiness and sadness in their faces, is quite comical and interesting. However, this too feels sterile, which I think is the plan. The dancers do not pull at the heart strings of the audience, but what they present is definitely fascinating and different.

Photos Chris Herzfeld

The costumes are simple, with the dancers in all white. For some of the time they wear white skirts that have exact replicas of their individual legs painted on them. These create interesting pictures as the dancers move their legs. The skirts are quite ingenious.

There is a long scene where the dancers place individual body parts, such as their arms, legs or upper back though a large white, material screen. Video projection creates swirls and images streaming from each body part. This scene takes the deconstruction of the body to another level. I feel that it lasts a little long, as there isn’t much dancing, just movement of individual body parts, but the video imagery is engaging.

One of the dancers, dressed in all white from head to toe, comes onto the stage as a manikin or mummy like figure, as dancer Kialea-Nadine Williams manipulates his body parts. I am not sure of the purpose of this character, except to ask the question of ‘are we just our bodies?’ The manikin ias expressionless and without any features and can only move if the dancers manipulate him. Later in the program one of the dancers draws a face on him and other dancers come on stage with masks on the backs of their heads, with their faces covered, creating the illusion of their heads being on back to front.

Be Your Self feels like it is part of a larger exploration for Garry Stewart, and that it might just be the beginning of something bigger. Although a little out of my comfort zone, I enjoyed the work and found the dancers to be incredibly talented. I look forward to seeing if this work evolves in the future.