By Jo McDonald.

Emerging South Australian dance theatre and education company, One Point 618 will present a world premiere production, Involuntary, at Adelaide’s Space Theatre from May 1^st to 5^th. Directed and choreographed by renowned dance artist Katrina Lazaroff, Involuntary looks at how society is preoccupied by the pressures of life, consumerism and regulation. In the lead up to opening night, Dance Informa spoke with Lazaroff about her new work and her plans for the future.

What was the inspiration or motivation for Involuntary?

Well, just as with my last work, Pomona Road, I began with a stimulus that in the end didn’t continue through the work. I was watching my mother-in-law watch football.  Her body was reacting unconsciously to her experience and she was throwing herself around the room.  I thought it was hilarious and I could really make a work about this.  Also, when my daughter Zoe was very young she made lots of involuntary movements that were sporadic, crazy movements.  It was these two things that inspired me to make a work called Involuntary.

I’ve had three development stages for Involuntary:

The first was a workshop scenario, when I set aside an hour after teaching class at Ausdance each week and invited people to work with me and test out ideas.

The second development was a showing in Ausdance’s Choreolab.  By then I released I needed extra substance for the work if I wanted to attract grant funding.  I needed to make a societal connection.  The bureaucracy involved in applying for grants was so frustrating.  That’s when I started thinking about how much we have to do in society to be a part of society – things we don’t really believe in, the rigmarole, the red tape.  We do this involuntarily so we can operate in society.  We go along with the rapid pace of technological advancements, which may not always be our choice.

In the third development I looked at the influence of media and subliminal advertising.  I didn’t want the piece to be just about technology.  I wanted it to be about the actions, often unconscious, that we do each day to survive in society.  After the third development, I realised I wanted to look at a lot of things we were unconscious about. The things we just do, rather than the things we choose.  I wanted to look at how we react to having to talk to computers and phone prompts, when all we want is to talk to a real person.

Involuntary by Katrina Lazaroff

My original idea was abstract and humorous.  And though I’ve thought more seriously about societal issues, I don’t mean to be dark about it.  It’s a satire.  I want to get people to think.

What is it that drives you to create work with a social connection?

I need to make work that says something, that speaks to people, that is more than just my own personal aesthetic or artistic concept.  I want to make work that a broad range of people connect to.  I want to bring people to the arts, to show that performing arts is a broad medium to share thoughts and feelings.

Involuntary is very socially relevant.  Everyone can relate to it and their own involvement in society.  People laugh when I mention I’m making a satire about that.  My last work, Pomona Road, was a story about a family.  Involuntary comes from a very different place.  It has a cold, contemporary side to it, but it’s about what we go through as people.  I want to create work about what everyone experiences.

What has been the most satisfying part of making Involuntary?

The dancers I’m working with are just amazing.  It’s been quite a process to cast the work properly.  I feel I have the right group and artistic team around me.  They are so wonderful and open to my ideas.  It is just so exciting.  I really want to go to work and share everything with the team.

I feel like I have something important to say and I feel happy about that.  I’m glad I’m making social comment.

What has been the most challenging part?

Trying to work out the right team.  Initially I saw it as a really technical dance work, but it has become a more theatrical work where I need people interested in theatrical aspects, rather than technicians.

I didn’t attract the funding I’d applied for, which meant the dancers I worked with through the three development phases kept changing.  I worked with young graduates, and then really technical dancers.  In the end, I realised what I needed was dancers who were open to speaking and using their voices, as well as with technical skills.

I’ve learnt I need to work with people that I’ve have worked with for some time, like Tim Rodgers and Veronica Shum.  It’s like coming home.  They understand me and I don’t have to start from ground zero again.  A lot of young dancers across the country wonder why choreographers use the same dancers all the time.  But it is about trust in making work that means something to you, and knowing the dancers get where you’re coming from.

How have you grown as a choreographer with Involuntary?

I think I’m getting better at refining ideas, including movement, thematic and conceptual ideas.  I can sift through things and decide quickly if an idea will work or not.  I’m better at trusting my instincts.  I’m trusting in my movement making ability again.  I was a performer for so long, then had a child, and along the way lost some of my trust in my instincts.  Self doubt is going away, and so I can hone into the process and practice.

What’s next for Katrina Lazaroff?

I plan to tour the three works – Involuntary, Pomona Road, and Skip, and create a new work.

The working title of my next work is Prison.  It will be a dance theatre piece that invites different mediums.  I started looking at people in confined spaces.  I’ve always been fascinated with small spaces and people’s rituals in small spaces. I’ll look at people’s behaviour in prison – it’s incredible how people survive in confined spaces.  The work won’t mimic prison as such, but will look at the prison of our own minds, and the way we imprison ourselves through the way our minds operate, and how we don’t allow ourselves to be free much of the time.

Essentially, I want to focus on getting my work out nationally and regionally.  I want to share it.

Published by Dance Informa dance magazine – everything dance in Australia – dance auditions, dance events and dance news.

After ten years with Bangarra Dance Theatre, Patrick Thaiday is moving on from the company. Patrick’s performance of Stephen Page’s Warumuk-in the dark night at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Australian Ballet’s Infinity Program on April 25 was his last with Bangarra.

A much loved and recognised dancer, Patrick’s retirement comes as he celebrates a long and successful decade with Bangarra. Since joining Bangarra in 2002, Patrick’s face has become synonymous with the company and critics and audiences alike have lauded him for his extraordinary featured performances across Bangarra’s repertoire.

Of his time with the company Patrick told Dance Informa, “over the years Bangarra has given me the honour of representing my culture, people and art through dance. I’ve just taken a ride on a time machine and experienced the most amazing Dreamtime journey.”

Bangarra’s Artistic Director Stephen Page said “Patrick has been a core member of the company for the past ten years and his work deserves to be celebrated. His passion for and commitment to Indigenous dance has been a driving force within the company and he is a point of inspiration for the younger dancers. I hope that after a well deserved break Patrick will return to Bangarra in a different role.”

Patrick Thaiday in 'Belong' by Bangarra Dance Theatre. Photo by Jeff Busby.

Patrick was born in Biloela, Queensland and grew up in Mackay. His parents come from Iama and Erub in the Torres Strait Islands. He believes that his in-built desire to dance is derived from his parents’ ancestors who originated from Lifu, South Sea Islands and Jamaica. With a strong cultural background, he learnt traditional dances from an early age.

Patrick’s family and friends encouraged him to pursue a career in dance and in 1999 he moved to Sydney to study at NAISDA (National Aboriginal and Islander Skills and Development Association), performing both traditional and contemporary dance. Whilst studying, Patrick performed with Bangarra and Christine Anu at the Closing Ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

In 2002 Patrick was accepted into Bangarra Dance Theatre. His solo in that year’s production Walkabout earned him recognition for his talents. Since then this critically acclaimed dancer has received prestigious awards for his performances in Clan (2004), Boomerang (2005), Gathering (2006) and True Stories (2007). In 2008 Patrick performed a central role in Stephen Page’s Mathinna.

In 2009 Patrick travelled to Europe with Bangarra to perform True Stories and later helped Bangarra celebrate its 20th Anniversary with Fire – A Retrospective. In 2010 he performed in Bangarra’s of earth & sky to outstanding acclaim. Patrick’s recent highlights include performing at the 2011 Indigenous All Stars NRL game and the Spirit tour of Germany and Italy. He also performed to much acclaim in the 2011 Belong national tour and Bangarra’s regional tour of Mathinna. 2012 has seen Patrick perform in Stephen Page’s Warumuk – in the dark night as a part of the Australian Ballet’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

Patrick is one of the nation’s finest Indigenous performers and will be long remembered by Bangarra audiences for his distinctive performance presence.

Dance Informa wishes Patrick all the best with his future endeavours.

Top photo: Patrick Thaiday. Photo courtesy of Bangarra Dance Theatre.

Published by Dance Informa dance magazine – everything dance in Australia – dance news, dance auditions & dance events.

Mrs Macquarie’s Point in the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney
March 22 2012

By Kristy Johnson.

Thursday 22^nd of March, media were treated to a rehearsal of Opera Australia’s La Traviata. Set at Mrs Macquarie’s Point in the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney, the ultimate romantic opera tells the story of the ‘fallen woman’ or more figuratively, ‘the woman who goes astray’.

An impressive infrastructure installed on Sydney Harbour captured the huge production of Handa Opera’s La Traviata. Guests were invited to view spectacular sets, beautiful costumes, fireworks and a 9-metre chandelier sparkling with Swarovski Elements, suspended above a purpose-built shimmering stage on the waters of Sydney Harbour.

La Traviata is perfect for first-time opera-goers and was a visual treat, despite the poor weather conditions at hand. Due to an onslaught of rain, the production was delayed quite considerably, and when the rain finally eased off, the audience were only able to view a select few acts. Wearing black tie didn’t seem to matter much, when blue ponchos emblazoned with the Mazda logo were being thrown out left, right and centre. Considering the amount of money spent on the production, one would think that some form of shelter, even for the performers, would have been provided. Whilst my guest and I found it quite humorous to be watching Opera in the rain, one could not help but feel sympathetic towards the performers whose costumes seemed to already be ruined by the end of the first short act.

For what we did see of the dancing, Stephen Baynes delivered what you would have expected – great choreography. It was obvious that the dancers were required to possess solid technique and training in classical and contemporary styles. Having seen the dancers rehearse prior to the night, at the studios of Opera Australia, it was a delight to see the finished product.

Emma Matthews, who played the role of Violetta and Gianluca Terranova in the role of Alfredo Germont, did not disappoint either. The vocals were simply incredible.

Overall, despite the poor weather conditions, all had a great night. Delicious catering of gourmet pizzas and champagne ensured guests were kept happy and entertained.

Published by Dance Informa dance magazine – everything dance in Australia – dance auditions, dance news, dance events, dance reviews and resources for dance teachers.

By Grace Edwards.

This year marks Dancehouse’s first full year with Artistic Director, Angela Conquet at the helm; it also marks the institution’s twentieth anniversary. 2012 thus brings with it an opportunity to reflect on Dancehouse’s long and outstanding role within the dance community.

Established in 1992 by a group of independent dance practitioners, Dancehouse remains the only presenter in Australia dedicated solely to contemporary dance. Its programmes fall under three broad headings: Research, Training and Performance, and among these activities are curated seasons, community out-reach programs, curated programs with partner venues or interstate artists, meetings and seminars, dance on screen events, and much more. The most high profile activity at Dancehouse, however, remains the Housemate residency, the only national residency developed solely for independent dance practitioners.

Both former Housemate Ashley Dyer and current Housemate Alex Harrison happily acknowledge the value of the residency, which offers recipients space, time and money for research and performance. Dyer, who explored the motion of smoke and its related iconography as part of his Housemate project, enjoyed the greater sense of control that came with a pay cheque and a studio. “The difficult thing about being in Australia is that you often take contracts that are short term and intense, like a month, and then you have to drop jobs. Whereas with this project, I thought right from the beginning, ‘well, it can go three months, so what if I just do it as much as I can around a schedule and then have more intense periods?’ That, and being able to use the [Dancehouse] office as an actual office, was a real advantage for me.”

Angela Conquet. Photo by Alfred Mrozicki

Through his residency, which ended in December, Dyer’s relationship with Dancehouse is ongoing. “We’re totally interested in where Ashley’s research project is going to go, because one day it will be a performance,” says Conquet.

Current Housemate, Harrison, who has only just begun her performance stream residency, will, like Dyer, receive a pro-rata salary for the duration of her project as well as free studio space. As part of the performance stream, Harrison will also present a short season of her work to the general public in one of the two Dancehouse theatres at the conclusion of her residency. Harrison’s project, currently entitled ‘What’s Coming – A Futures Festival’, stems from her desire to attempt to “read the shape of movement to come and predict dance futures.”

Harrison stresses that apart from the obvious benefits of the residency, the Dancehouse environment offers dance practitioners much more.  “There’s actually a difference between offering materially and offering your interest and enthusiasm with a great generosity and a sense of abundance,” she explains.  “That’s something quite distinct that I’ve noticed here, that there is an abundance of that.”

“It’s the distinction between a house and a home, really,” adds Dyer. “It’s about trying to create a warm environment that nurtures projects in the best possible way and once the artists ‘grow up’ and do their own thing it gives them a home to come back to if they need to.”

For Conquet, it is the combination of resources and the centre’s genuine enthusiasm for risk-taking that makes Dancehouse such a valuable institution for dance artists. “I think that’s why the relationship with the artists is so solid, because we’re sharing the same risk. We’re walking down the same path as the artists, even though we don’t know where they are taking us!”

Indeed, it is this fearless attitude to experimentation that allows Dancehouse to act as an incubator for creative minds. “We create the space because we want to have people who bring the right feedback, the people who can take things further in terms of critical discourse, and it’s also a network because we’re part of the bigger network of contemporary dance in Australia,” says Conquet.

“We live in a world which goes far too fast in any case, and I don’t think you can create art using those models. You still need to allow for space and protect that for the artist so he/she feels he/she can have that liberty. That’s very important. You can’t make art like you make sandwiches.”

The theatre at Dancehouse

Ultimately, Dancehouse’s activities are all designed with two simple ends in mind – to help contemporary dance and its practitioners to reach the broader community and to sustain it by developing future audiences, whether that involves fostering a healthy environment for artists or offering public programmes, such as weekly contemporary dance classes for beginners. As the sound of children’s laughter echoes around the studio, Conquet motions towards the upstairs studio. “It starts with those kids who are having a class. If we do our jobs correctly, those kids will come back as audience members to be inspired by what they see.”

This year sees Dancehouse expand its vision in three ways – focusing on new ways to develop relationships with artists, generating greater artistic circulation and increasing local and international mobility and development. Simone’s Boudoir, a thematically curated range of informal discussions focused on the contemporary dance sector, is but one of many new initiatives designed to galvanise the community and make these goals happen in 2012. Dance Informa wishes Dancehouse all the best in this endeavour.

Congratulations Dancehouse on twenty years of services to dance. We look forward to watching the Dancehouse team’s vision unfold over the next twenty!

Published by Dance Informa dance magazine – everything dance in Australia – dance news, dance auditions & dance events.

Sydney Theatre
January 2012
As part of Sydney Festival

By Lynne Lancaster.

One of this Sydney Festival’s major events, Babel is a mesmerizing and enthralling piece that will leave you gasping.

Two of Europe’s hottest choreographers, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet, bring us an extraordinary company of eighteen dancers and musicians in a powerful, hypnotic, swirling maelstrom of searching for identity and culture.

The driving concept of the work is based on the Biblical story of the building of the Tower of Babel and how language (both spoken and physical) and body emerge as the hidden forces behind all human interaction.

The international language of ballet is French, but Cherkaoui and Jalet combine Western contemporary dance with different movement styles from around the world, including break dance, hip hop, ballet and martial arts in tandem with a haunting and thrilling eclectic soundtrack of rhythm and voice.

The incredible cast throw themselves into the work with amazing energy. Various sections are developed into a vivid chaos of multilingual chatter, with some of it funny and some quite angry. Simple acts are highlighted, like hanging out the washing while singing. At times the casts’ hands are like stars; there is violence but also much fragile, hesitant tenderness.

Highlights include an amazing performance by Ulrika Kinn Svennson. Sooty eyed and incredibly tall, she teeters along in knee high black boots as an exquisite robotic doll. There is a sequence where she is gleefully ‘inflated’ by two Japanese men and in another she acts as a multilingual customs/security guard at the airport.

In one section Darryl E. Woods enters like a conquering king and gives a biting tongue-in-cheek monologue on how the English language has dominated the world. Another sequence looks at mirror/motor neurons and the philosophy of connectedness. In another moment an erudite, philosophical Frenchman gradually becomes a Neanderthal like grunting caveman.

There is a topless, writhing, sculptural pas de deux and some most unusual male pas de deux, one in particular that is based on martial arts. There is a lot of energetic machismo, with the atmosphere at one point like a footy team celebrating. This is contrasted with a piece where after a stunning pas de deux one of the dancers is caught in a cell and unable to escape.

The score is a musical fusion of East and West, with interweaving Hindi beat, dramatic Kodo drumming and haunting lyrical medieval music including flute and harp.

Gormley’s timeless, fragile and versatile set of hardy silver metal frame cubes are at times reflective against the plain black scrim. The cubes interlock, tilt, slide and rotate allowing the cast to build the Tower of Babel.

A stunning, breathtaking analysis of the human condition and the need to communicate.

Photo by Koen Broos

By Rain Francis

Contemporary dance often has an aura of mystery about it. It’s not ballet, it’s not hip hop, and it seems to be different wherever you go. That’s one of the best things about it! Here Rain Francis talks to Sacha Copland, Artistic Director of New Zealand’s Java Dance Company, about the curious world of contemporary dance.

Java Dance Company was founded in 2003 by Sacha and fellow graduates of New Zealand School of Dance. It is based in Wellington but tours a lot around the country. Java’s mission is ‘to capture audiences with visceral, impressive dance that communicates’. This goal is realised by ‘creating and presenting original theatrical dance works built on dynamic physicality, character development and storytelling’.

Earlier this year, Java was at the Taranaki International Arts Festival performing two shows –  Back of the Bus and Pick a Path – a show created especially for children. Back of the Bus is a popular piece by the company. It has been presented all over New Zealand. It is performed on a moving bus that stops at different locations around the city it is in.

On this occasion, The Arts Festival organisers worked with a graffiti artist to paint the bus, and they spray-painted a cartoon of Java dancer Natalie Hona on the back of the bus. Natalie was stoked, saying “I haven’t been turned into a cartoon before!”

Sacha says this is something she loves about contemporary dance; it uses “such a wide variety of movement in lots of different contexts”. Java’s latest project was a show called RISE, where the performers made bread on stage, on a massive scale, with “an exploding wall of milk and honey, flour falling and water bursting from the ground”.

Sacha says of RISE, “It was the most holistically challenging project I’ve ever been a part of,  from working with volatile elements to collaborating with a composer to create a new 90 minute work integrating the live musicians, to addressing the question ‘what is universal’ while embedded in the bread-making process. I loved making RISE, working with a tactile space rather than a ‘clean’ surface. The cast were incredible and so willing to get amongst the mess.”

RISE had an international cast, epic design and all the fun of audience involvement. It required over 1000kgs of flour, a rock climbing wall that ran the length of the theatre, live singers and intense physicality. It explored how a community comes into existence and involved the dancers getting covered in flour, honey, water, and dough. The audience helped by kneading the bread, which was then baked.

Dancer Alana Sargent described the experience of working on such a unique show. “RISE for me was a massive learning curve and I enjoyed every second of it. I found myself in new and insane situations that pushed me and made me grow as an artist. It opened my mind to numerous possibilities creatively, and I was constantly learning. Dancing in physical elements of flour, water and golden syrup really challenged me as a performer. Never once did a show feel the same as the last. I believe this show will never stop evolving and improving. I am so pleased that I have had the opportunity to be part of the creative process of such an innovative show.”

OK, so far we have a dance performed in a moving vehicle, and a giant baking experiment. So, what exactly IS contemporary dance? The cool thing about it is everybody defines it differently, and there’s not really any right or wrong definition. Contemporary dance began as an answer to the stringent rules of classical ballet, and has evolved into something with virtually no boundaries. It is interpreted differently by everyone – performers and audience members alike.

Sacha defines contemporary dance as “an intensely physical way to express an idea. It uses influences from theatre, lots of different dance styles and visual art”. The only rule, she says, is that “it must keep changing as the world changes. It’s about exploring new ways to move.”

Because there are so few limitations, this style of dance can be really accessible to everyone, or it can be quite challenging. Sometimes people say they don’t understand it, but the thing to remember is, whatever a piece of art means to you, is what it means to you! This goes for dance, visual art, poetry and music. They’re all open to interpretation, and every interpretation is valid.

According to Sacha, the contemporary dance industry in NZ is reaching out to audiences and changing the perception that contemporary is mysterious and hard to understand. She says that Java has a “really theatrical style, so people can connect with the story as well as the physicality. Communicating through movement is the key.”

Java has a strong youth connection. They make shows specifically for teenagers and tour high schools nationally, performing as well as conducting dance and choreography workshops. In Term 2 next year they’ll be touring North Island schools with Survivor, a show that explores how basic instinct drives us all as we negotiate our place in the pecking order.

In February, Java will be heading off on its first international tour, to perform Back of the Bus at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. The company invites you to ride on a bus through the streets of Adelaide, as dancers propel themselves along the aisles and hang from the roof. What fun! Physical comedy, pure kinetic energy and outrageous scenarios will combine to create a magical mystery tour of the unexpected.

For more information, check out www.javadancecompany.co.nz and www.adelaidefringe.com.au.

This article was originally published in TEARAWAY Magazine – The Voice of New Zealand Youth. www.tearaway.co.nz

By Leigh Schanfein

Last year at this time, I was offered a pretty sweet deal: go to Sydney, where housing and various other expenses would be covered, work with a colleague whose unique movement style I found truly intriguing, create and perform a new work with a group of pre-selected enthusiastic and experienced dancers, and serve as rehearsal director for the work in subsequent settings.  Oh yeah, and I would go halfway around the world to do it.  Giving purpose to my meager savings, I bought a flight and flew from New York City to Sydney to work with emerging choreographer Ian RT Colless, his company Untitled|Collective, and the DirtyFeet dance organization. 

If you haven’t already heard of it, you should.  DirtyFeet is a non-profit contemporary dance organization founded in 2005, with the intent to provide opportunities and workspace for emerging independent dancers and choreographers in Sydney.  As part of this effort, DirtyFeet offers choreographic labs for emerging choreographers, performance series for independent dancers, and dance workshops for the community at large.  The beautiful thing about this organization is that it functions much like a collective, bringing independent dancers together with the common objectives of creating dance and developing as dancers. DirtyFeet members pay a small annual fee for the privilege of taking part in residencies, performances, and classes organized by DirtyFeet’s co-directors Anthea Doropoulos and Sarah Fiddaman. 

As a freelance dancer in New York City, I face the challenges that come with jumping from choreographer to choreographer and from project to project, without always feeling as though there is time or room for my own development as an artist within each role I undertake.  There is immense pressure for choreographers and directors to prove something with every expense, and the very fact that the choreographer is putting together a performance, along with the efforts required to put the project together, is often what negates his or her efforts as an artist.  Choreographers do not have the luxury of cultivating their dancers.  This is the primary reason why I am impressed with DirtyFeet. The collective experience can give both choreographers and dancers the freedom so necessary to artistic development.

Dancers perform "Meeting Place". Photo by Krista Bonura

This brings me to the choreographer who invited me “Downunder”, Ian RT Colless.  If you haven’t already heard of him, you will.  Ian, who hails from the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, holds degrees in dance from Queensland University of Technology and Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.  He has won accolades and awards for his choreography for musical, opera, and dance performance, and is now based in NYC, where he held an internship with Battery Dance Company.  The internship was funded by the Australia Council for the Arts – Skills & Arts Development Grant from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board.  Indeed, Ian is a descendent of the Gundungurra Nation of Aboriginals from the Blue Mountains. 

Upon first meeting, one would never guess Ian’s full heritage.  The tall, lanky, and fair-skinned man could be any dancer at any studio, until you see him move.  How can I describe Ian’s style?  Quirky doesn’t quite cut it.  With the angles of a stork blended with the fluidity of a snake, he mostly does things that you can’t imagine anyone else being able to do.  However, what any dancer will come to realize through working with Ian is that the way all of us with our different training, flexibility, strength, technique, and heritage can all move as one, is by cultivating a shared intent.  If a hundred different bodies perform a movement with the same engagement and purpose, then they will look as one because the audience feels the commonality. 

When we began work in the DirtyFeet choreographic lab, we quickly realized we were not trying to emulate Ian’s movement, or even to dance in a way that fits within the parameters of his influence.  Instead, we were to perform as individuals in a communal context.  Ian never said, “Do this move in your interpretation of an Aboriginal way”.  That would have been absurd considering the lack of exposure someone like me has had to Aboriginal dance; it probably would have ended up an accidental mockery of something to be honoured.  Instead, Ian informed our movement by exposing us to his land, his family, his community (Gundungurra Nation), and his understanding of traditional dance and philosophies so that we could use it as motivation while dancing explicitly as ourselves.  We were given information with which to shape our intent.

I believe one of the reasons we, as a group of dancers from a surprisingly diverse background, were able to accomplish what we did within a three week choreographic lab was because Ian shaped the project to double as a cultural residency.  We learned about Ian’s Aboriginal heritage and how it influences his work.  We were subsequently asked to use our own backgrounds as a driving force.  We drew upon our memories, externalized them, reinterpreted them into movement, and re-internalized them through the absorptive power of dance.  By doing so, we ended up with a way to realize other people’s memories in our own bodies, creating a very powerful device by which we understood each other. 

It seems to me that DirtyFeet provides the perfect format for choreographers and dancers who work with the understanding that that which makes a dancer unique is what should be enhanced through performance and not subdued to fit a mould.  If you ever have the opportunity to work in this way, I’d certainly recommend giving it a try.  You may even make it to a new part of the world in the process, and you’ll certainly make it to a new level of understanding about your own dancing.  If you haven’t already had the opportunity to explore yourself through the exploration of others’ culture and experiences, you definitely should.

Since the residency, I’ve served as rehearsal director for performances of this work, Ripple, in Manhattan and Queens, NYC, and performed with Untitled|Collective in Boundaries.3, Ripple, and the newest work Meeting Place, at various Manhattan venues.  I never imagined at this early point in my career that I would be able to hop on over to Australia for a choreographic residency, and then find such unspoken self and shared cultivation amongst a group of dancers.  I certainly got a sweet deal.

Learn more about Ian RT Colless and Untitled|Collective at www.untitled-collective.com.
Learn more about DirtyFeet at www.dirtyfeet.com.au.

Top photo: By Hayley Rose Photography

Parramatta Riverside Theatre
October 27 2011 

By Dolce Fisher

The latest installment from youMove, presented by Form Dance Projects, showed how this company has graduated to the next level. Previously being known in the community as a youth dance company, youMove has taken its place as a pre-professional company offering real opportunities, training and mentorship for its dancers. youMove has a very different vibe to that of other small companies of a similar nature. This can only be put down to its leadership under Kay Armstrong and her generational vision.

4Tell featured five small works, each very individual in theme visually and artistically. Interjected between each work were short solos that came out of the company’s blog. These were highly entertaining and well-rehearsed.

The show opener was Boundaries choreographed by Ian Colless. The work showed his Bangarra background. The dancers captured the style and the smooth quality of the movement and were really grounded into the floor.

Next, Kevin Privett’s work By Looking featured twisting and swirling effects created by the dancers’ movements. The creative lift work was an intriguing and integral part of the choreography.

youMove dancer Angela French choreographed and performed a solo work entitled 3^rd Time Over. The movement had a repetitive nature but a very deep emotional element made the work very intense.

Last Pace to Go, danced by Anna Healey and Sean Marcs, was a virtual work choreographed by Davis Williams. The dancers and choreographer used Skype to bring the work together, showing how we can take advantage of technology to develop our art. The choreography was extremely intimate and showed many facets of a relationship. The work was performed so well that at times I felt like the moments created were really just for the pair, and not the audience. The feeling of looking into the pair’s relationship became very real.

Lastly, Anton’s Multiplicity was precision perfection. There was one section that had all of the dancers moving their arms frantically in a circular motion, incredibly fast. This alone had me on the edge of my seat.

4Tell is an exciting sign of what is to come from this company, going from strength to strength and producing some talented young artists. The only downside was that the season was so short and wasn’t seen by more audiences in Sydney, across NSW and the rest of the country.

Photo: Wendy McDougall

Melbourne International Arts Festival
The Arts Centre
October 2011 

By Rain Francis. 

When, as the ushers check your ticket, you are handed earplugs, you may experience a mix of excitement and trepidation.  Then, when the show opens with the jaw-dropping depiction of a samurai warrior sacrificing himself, you know you are in for a ride that will be engraved on your retinas for some time.

After a standout appearance at the 2009 Melbourne Festival, Hofesh Shechter was back this year with his first full-length work, Political Mother.

This is a total immersion experience for the audience; a powerful blitz of live music, dance, and striking imagery. With his uncommon duality – being both composer and choreographer – Shechter has created a show where the music and dance are not only equally compelling and equally central, but integral to one another.

The music is brutal; thrashing between hard rock and military drumming. Rather than simply being placed on stage, the musicians have an intense visual presence. The rock band, elevated above the rest of the action, is shrouded in haze, with the players evenly spaced and lit from below. Between them and the dancers is a sinister line of often faceless drummers, stern and upright, with the brass buttons on their uniforms gleaming in the dark.

The dance itself is constantly moving; the feet shambling and shuffling, the floor patterns looping intricately, mathematically organised. The arms are very expressive, but never fully extended. They are strung aloft by the wrists, or cradled in what sometimes seems like self-defence, sometimes submission, sometimes weariness. It is emotionally draining. We feel the performers clinging to near-shredded hope, always moving forward though close to exhaustion.

Tying together and somewhat brightening all this darkness is a strong sense of community, which seems to empower the individual. Shechter has interwoven traditional folk dance with his own contemporary vocabulary to comment on the way humanity deals with the pressures of modern life. The result is surreal, but also hyper-real, with a timeless, universal quality. Political Mother reels you in, envelops you and takes you on an intense voyage through worlds colliding.

Melbourne International Arts Festival
Melbourne Recital Centre
October 2011

By Grace Edwards

Chunky Move’s Assembly is Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek’s final work with the company. Produced in collaboration with the Victorian Opera, it is in one a study in the motion of crowds, a salute to the collaborative possibilities of the age-old partnership between music and dance, and a swan song for Obarzanek which marks the end of a triumphant fifteen-year era in the history of Victorian contemporary dance.

The scale of the work reflected the occasion, featuring over sixty singers and dancers performing on a giant staircase set up on the stage of the Melbourne Recital Centre. The choice of music accompanying this experiment appeared surprising. Rather than a contemporary soundscape, Assembly offered its audience a selection of unaccompanied vocal works from the plainchant of the Middle Ages to the music of late Renaissance composers Carlo Gesualdo and Tomas Luis de Victoria. The choice reflected Obarzanek’s desire to work with nothing but pure vocal sound and movement, devoid of technical special effects or wizardry.

Opening on a staircase filled with performers, the crowd launched into a million discussions, creating a wall of sound above which no individual conversations could be heard. This is the anonymity of the crowd, at once comforting and frustrating. The performers underwent a number of subsequent permutations, from navigating past each other’s bodies like pedestrians to performing simply movements in unison.

Whilst these sequences were interesting in their own right, they did not ultimately transcend their original context. There is a fine line between art through emulation and simple imitation; at times, the crowd sequences appeared to veer towards the latter, with rather literal presentations of a football shouting match, dozens of individuals talking at once, moving past each other as if walking on the street. Indeed, part of the magic of crowds is their spontaneity; the reason why people-watching can be so fascinating. Simply transferring such experiences to the stage stripped these moments of their interest whilst offering little as replacement. 

The length of the opening also foreshadowed what would prove to be the generally static pace of this work. Lacking a sense of progression towards any sort of climax, Assembly remained somewhat cold and abstracted throughout on more than one occasion, causing one to wonder where it was all leading.

Performers Harriet Ritchie and Sara Black were, as always it seems, standouts – dynamic agents amidst the throng of performers, throwing themselves across the merciless staircase with abandon whilst maintaining masterful control of their bodies. As an ensemble, the dancers impressed with their dynamism and commitment to the work. The singers were equally impressive in their vocal clarity, their voice projecting beautifully across the auditorium amidst the sounds of movement onstage.

The most interesting sequence was that in which the crowd followed individual performers to the furthest points of the set, flocking like sheep to engulf those who dared stand out. The music echoed this theme at many points in the work with a single voice piercing the auditorium before being subsumed by other voices in a beautiful wall of sound. These aspects perhaps lit a path towards a more transformative approach to crowd behavior.

Whilst this was not Chunky Move’s strongest work of recent years, the risk-taking, collaborative approach of Assembly makes it a fitting tribute to Obarzanek; a contemporary dance icon who has consistently stayed one step ahead of the crowd.

Photo: Assembly in rehearsal. Photo by Jeff Busby