A guide to Australian contemporary dance
In Repertoire
www.ozco.gov.au etBangarraDanceTheatre, ShelleyLasica, i2idesign PeterThorn, Right top Baxter, Virginia KeithGallasch Left Cover photographs MichelleMoo Design Assistant Editor Editors The Editors introduction onpage34toAustraliandancefilmandvideo. history andcontextofAustraliancontemporarydancethere’s alsoabrief The overviewessayonpages31-33provides anaccessibleintroduction tothe contact details. find touringhistories,projected tours,technicalspecificationsand service promoting Australianartsandculture internationally. You'll also Australia Councilwebsite,
dance installation
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...staggeringly brave, original choreography and an equally brave stand against this age of unbeauty. dB Magazine
...a seamless merging of projected, corporeal and sound media. RealTime
Bonemap Fiona Cameron
The Bridge Song Inhabited
A unique new media performance Originally performed in public designed to pop up where dance is She is committed to creating new for solo dancer, musicians and spaces including laneways, least expected. dance works that question social projection that leads the audience museums and nightclubs, this work 30 mins, 3 performers purpose, using non-traditional on a journey over bridges through explores human interaction with city Well known for her performing performance spaces and direct the lens of urban and environmental environments. From self-consumed career with Chunky Move and Alias audience interaction. ecology. The Bridge Song explores salsa to a claustrophobic game of Compagnie (Geneva), Fiona environmental sensitivity and the train twister, two women navigate Cameron’s work displays a raw ...such elegance, poise and fragile relationship between a body the suffocating metropolis with an physicality and dramatic realism, confidence...[the] merest and its surroundings. accompanying sound artist. Highly dynamic in its extreme investigation physical inflection is eminently Australian Dance Theatre ...an amazing troupe...at home with the beautiful high extensions 50 mins, 3 performers mobile and adaptable street-theatre of the body’s physical capabilities. satisfying. RealTime The Age of Unbeauty and whipping fouettes of ballet as they are with the alarming pops An intermedia arts partnership between Russell Milledge and Garry Stewart’s extreme mix of and rolls of breakdancing... [Birdbrain is] one of the most Rebecca Youdell, the Bonemap combative and breathtaking project is a hybrid mesh of live art, choreography, using hapkido, hazardous explosions of movement seen in London in years. dance, visual art and new media gymnastics and fearless attitude, The Times, London framed by an overarching ecological moves through an avalanche of philosophy. It has been awarded the potent images in which violence, first interdisciplinary Asialink award torture and incarceration are with a residency at The Substation, interspersed with unanticipated Singapore. moments of tenderness and shattering vulnerability. Winner of three 2002 Australian Dance Awards and the Adelaide Critics Circle’s Group Award. 65 mins, 11 performers
In one of the most influential dance companies in the country, dancers train in a fusion of forms that results in a unique choreographic palette, producing fast, aggressive, technically demanding work fraught with risk and charged with an urgency that is riveting to watch. The company has taken their acclaimed Birdbrain to the UK. US and UK tours of The Age of Unbeauty are scheduled for 2004-5. 6
The Fondue Set
Blue Moves
A bumpy ride through the world of the female psyche, exploring the humour, pain and peril of a night on the town. With nods to David Lynch and Alfred Hitchcock, this work visits female archetypes from the worlds of film–the femme fatale, the damsel in distress and the paranoid Lucy Guerin Inc. wall flower. A short, sharp, accessible work. Melt/The Ends of Things 50 mins, 3 performers In an intensely focused and dynamic Bringing laughter and tragedy back duet amplified with motion graphics, to dance, The Fondue Set Melt explores each degree of a rise (Elizabeth Ryan, Emma Saunders, Queensland Ballet from freezing to boiling point in the Jane McKernan) have performed at relationship between two women. the Melbourne International Double Take The Ends of Things explores the Comedy Festival, the Adelaide resonance of endings. As one Fringe Festival, the Antistatic dance Two strongly contrasting works man’s life draws to a close, event, Sydney’s Performance showcase the creativity of artistic boundaries between reason and Space and the 2003 Melbourne director and chief choreographer, chaos collapse, unleashing wild International Arts Festival. François Klaus, and the physicality and humorous fantasies. and musicality of the Queensland 85 mins, 4 performers An ode to...femme[s] fatale, the Ballet dancers. A joyful exploration sadness underlying humour and of the strong rhythms and perpetual One of Australia’s leading the darker side of a girls’ night motion of four movements from choreographers, Lucy Guerin has out...an engaging and riveting Bach’s keyboard concerti followed been commissioned by Chunky piece of dance. by a powerful interpretation of Move, Dance Works, Tasdance, Ros Revolver Stravinsky’s monumental Rite of Warby, Woo Co (Denmark) and Spring. Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak 75 minutes, 18 performers Dance Project, USA. She is the recipient of the Sidney Myer With a reputation for freshness and Performing Arts Award; several energy, the company’s eclectic Green Room Awards; the Prix repertoire ranges from short works d’auteur from the Rencontres for children to new, full-length story Choreographiques Internationales de ballets. Klaus, a Hamburg Ballet Bagnolet (France); and a ‘Bessie’ Principal for 19 years, has a strong New York Dance and Performance commitment to nurturing emerging Award. Her work has toured the choreographers and to exposing USA, Europe and Australia. Melt/The dancers and audiences to the Ends of Things has toured to seven world’s most vital and creative cities in the US and Canada. dance, performing works by major contemporary European Trevor Patrick’s portrayal...is a choreographers such as John stunning performance, crammed Neumeier, William Forsythe, and with subtle nuances of affecting Stephan Thoss. humility and daring. The New York Times
...quintessential Guerin: deliciously detached and saturated with sophisticated optical illusions. The Oregonian 8 Tony Yap, Yumi Umiumare
How could you even begin to understand?
A highly original ongoing ‘devotional work’ with versions 1 to 29 performed over 7 years in Australia, Japan and Malaysia in gallery, church, landscape and performance spaces. A synthesis of Asian shamanistic trance-dance, Butoh and contemporary western traditions, this work investigates the principles of yin-yang as a sensibility in performance, as an expression of Asian identity and as a possibility for cultural harmony and transformation. 40 mins, 2 performers
Tony Yap is an accomplished dancer, director, choreographer and visual artist and has worked extensively in Australia and internationally. His dance theatre language is informed by psycho- physical research, Asian dance forms including Butoh, voice and visual design. For Yumi Umiumare see Tokyo DasSHOKU Girl. Winner of a 2001 Victorian Green Room Award, How could you... received an outstanding response at JADE 2002 in Tokyo.
In a stunningly compelling performance, they shift from one meditative state to another, the dynamics changing from quiet composure to frenzied ecstasy. The Age
Yumi Umiumare
Tokyo DasSHOKU Girl This Australian modern dance A breathtaking torrent of company...brought blasts of choreographic, theatrical and musical ideas, this work explores the underbelly of contemporary choreographic excitement to the Tokyo. DasSHOKU, which translates as ‘bleaching’, strips the Harvey Theatre. New York Times color from the happy face of consumerism and challenges the myth of the polite and compliant Japanese woman. Winner of the ...a most remarkable moment in 2000 Green Room Award for Most Innovative Use of Form. the...evolution of Butoh history. 70 mins, 3 performers Yumi Umiumare came to Australia Chunky Move Cut In, Tokyo as part of the internationally acclaimed Butoh company Dai Tense Dave Rakudakan. Since migrating here she has focused on solo and A bold theatrical exploration of surrounded by elegiac thoughts of credits include commissions for Benois de la Danse Prize. Chunky collaborative dance projects. INORI- hidden impulses and covert acts. love and tawdry routines from Graz Opera Ballet (Austria), Move has an impressive record of in-visible was presented at Traces Dave stumbles through the worlds forgotten musicals. Premiered at Kibbutz Contemporary Dance international touring. 2003–a post-Butoh festival at of five anonymous characters who, the 2003 Melbourne International Company (Israel), Nederlands Dans Dansescenen, Copenhagen. Her ...a shocking, sprawling, comedic isolated in their individual spaces, Arts Festival. Theater (Holland), and the Ultra-contemporary dance, collaborative work with Tony Yap assault of a cabaret...daring and are living in worlds full of neurosis 65 mins, 6 performers Repertory Dance Theatre (USA). kitsch and techno...poetic and has toured to Brisbane, Sydney, exceedingly entertaining. and perversity. As the stage turns He has received the Sir Robert furious. An incredible visual Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur. The Age they are caught in the spotlight of Chunky Move is the state of Helpmann Scholarship, the Prime tornado. unexpected scrutiny in actions that Victoria’s major contemporary Minister’s Young Creative La Provence, France usually pass unseen, until the walls dance company. Artistic director Fellowship, a Mo Award and has melt and Dave is left in the middle, Gideon Obarzanek’s choreographic been nominated for Russia’s 10 11 Rosalind Crisp
raft/tread
raft is a solo composed of a series of visual songs, each created by taking a thread from another and treating it to interruptions, enlargements and distortions. tread is a work for 4 dancers exploring the exchange and slippage that can occur between body ecologies. raft/tread was Tracks Inc. commissioned by Michel Caserta of la Biennale nationale de danse du Janganpa Val-de-Marne, Paris, 2002. 52 mins, 4 performers Performed by Warlpiri and Anmatyere singers and dancers Rosalind Crisp’s work has been from the Central Desert of Australia, presented in Australia, Japan, Korea Janganpa comprises songs and and Europe. She has been awarded dances as performed by traditional a Women and Arts Fellowship, an elders as deeds to their ancestral In large scale performances that Grave, gripping, traditional, the Australian Dance Award for Best lands. This is the first time they powerfully connect place, people debut Western performance by Female Dance Performer of the have been performed together and spirit, Tracks has a national the Central Desert’s Janganpa Year and a Fellowship from the outside their traditional sites. The reputation for producing dance Dancers...was the signature Dance Board of the Australia Council. elders approached Tracks in order events that bring together artists event of this year’s Alice Springs Charismatic soloist, Rosalind Crisp She established the Omeo Dance to invigorate the passing down of and communities, giving voice to Festival. Studio in 1996, a significant focal traditional culture to the young. This Northern Territory culture. The The Australian possesses a rare gift of presence which point for contemporary is a complex and hauntingly Janganpa dancers are a group of permits her to fully invest the scenic space. choreographic research and beautiful performance. Warlpiri and Anmantyere singers, improvisation in Sydney. 60 mins, 14 performers dancers, painters and actors. Finely chiseled, masterfully condensed. La Terrasse, Paris
Force Majeure/Kate Champion Branch Nebula Same, same But Different Sentimental Reason Taking its inspiration from our In the summer of 1999 a enduring ability to keep on newspaper reported that a man struggling for love, this co- had stolen a horse, bound its legs, commission of Sydney and stripped off his clothes and had sex Melbourne International Arts with it in broad daylight. A sense of Festivals uses a dexterous blend of ever-present danger and lurking film, dance and theatre. Live action darkness pervades this intensely interacts with life-sized film imagery visceral, fast, funny and sexy work in a tour de force production that drawing on dance, acrobatics and defies categorisation. Recipient of theatre. the 2000 Helpmann Award for Best 23 mins, 2 performers Visual or Physical Theatre Production, and the Australian Branch Nebula, founded by Lee Dance Award for Best Female Wilson and Mirabelle Wouters, Dancer for Roz Hervey’s combines sound, installation and Kay Armstrong performance. physical theatre to create an 60 min, 8 performers idiosyncratic performance style Rara Avis informed by a critical engagement The Force Majeure ensemble is a with contemporary culture. The With pathos, humour and a keen Kay Armstrong is a freelance highly-regarded creative team under company has toured internationally sense of the absurd, Kay Armstrong dancer and theatre performer who the artistic direction of Kate and nationally and undertaken a fuses movement, imagery and has produced three solo works Champion, multi-talented dancer, residency at Les Bain Connective, spoken text, hijacking that icon of since 2000 and enjoyed a long- DV8 collaborator, choreographer, Brussels. Australian machismo, the motor standing relationship with One Extra director and writer who has vehicle, and taking us on a very Dance Company. received a Green Room Award and ...leaves Peter Shaffer’s Equus in personal road trip. In suburbs a Mo Award. the dust. Fast, loud, sexy, funny, littered with beer cans and ...a singular talent with a sharp dangerous and disturbing... memories of sex on the back seat, dance theatre sensibility. ...handsome, entertaining and The Sun-Herald Armstrong transforms into a RealTime beautifully performed. transcendent swan only to crash The Australian Captivating from start to finish...fresh, into a driverless car on a long, flat, straight road. stylish, thought-provoking, entertaining. 50 mins, 1 performer The Sydney Morning Herald 13
Bangarra Dance Theatre Company
Bush
Bush is inspired by the Dreamtime creation stories of Arnhem Land in northern Australia. Between the last breath of sunset and the first light An extraordinarily muscular of dawn is a mysterious and secret production whose focused space–reptilian creatures slither energy rarely lapses and whose from dark caves, a moth emerges surrealist edge never from its cocoon, the land erupts compromises the integrity of the pushing up mountains and carving traditional stories being depicted. waterholes. The world is being born. The Australian
Bangarra Dance Theatre finds its spiritual energy and inspiration in the cultural values and traditions of Indigenous Australia, creating ground-breaking works that are artistically innovative and technically One Extra Company Ltd accomplished. Bangarra’s productions have toured nationally Oysterland and internationally to critical and popular acclaim and have received Three idiosyncratic women–one the Matilda and numerous overcome by inertia, one bound by Helpmann awards. In 1997 the her past and one finding her way company and the Australian Ballet through a wind storm–explore joined forces in Rites, modes of 17th century courtly choreographed by artistic director dance in a very personal dance Stephen Page to Stravinsky’s Rite work. A collaboration between of Spring for the Melbourne Festival director/choreographer Michael ...modern dance informed by a and in 1999 toured to the Sydney Whaites and performer/ Opera House and New York’s City choreographers Jan Pinkerton, Center. In 2002 Corroboree was Julie-Anne Long and Kay sense of mission seems almost performed in Beijing, Hong Kong Armstrong. and Guangzhou and the Monaco 60 mins, 3 performers miraculous. Los Angeles Times Dance Forum. Michael Whaites is known for his powerful performances as a dancer, working in the US and Germany for BalletLab Clare Dyson many years. His choreographic credits include numerous Australian Amplification Intimate Drowning productions and 3 independent works in New York. One Extra Researched at a hospital emergency A pond of milk, suspended falling Company is a Sydney-based ward and at the Melbourne morgue, letters, a waterfall of salt and light facilitator and producer with a long Amplification magnifies the 1.6 globes frozen in blocks of ice history of creating innovative dance. seconds ‘dissociation’ freeze time dripping onto static performers. A which occurs at the moment of promenade theatre where the impact in a car accident. Skidding, audience peeps through slits in the sliding and crashing into a world of installation’s walls, walks on stage body bags, this work deconstructs and is seated for a reflective and reconstructs the site of impact exploration on death, loss and the with a fascination for the body in rituals of grieving. chaos. A densely layered, highly 40 mins, 3 performers technical and studied partnering of dance and installation. Clare Dyson’s process involves a 60 mins, 5 performers melding of practices between movement, visual installation, light Established by artistic director and audience involvement. She has Phillip Adams, BalletLab is one of created works in Australia, Europe Australia’s most experimental and and America. She has been challenging contemporary dance awarded an Emerging Artist companies, critiquing contemporary Fellowship, a Choreographic Centre culture and provoking dialogue Fellowship and a Queen’s Trust between dance and hybrid arts Award. practice. The company has toured nationally and to Germany, England ...beautiful, lingering images and and Mongolia. riveting moments of movement and stillness that pierce the ...resonates like a Gothic story soul...another compelling, book ballet... possibly the city’s affecting work by Dyson [that] best this year. will stay with me for some time. The Australian RealTime 15
Kage Physical Theatre
Nowhere Man
Exploring issues of identity through gymnastics, dance and theatrical illusion, this is the story of a man who has been seemingly left behind, unable to relate to modern life. Finding nothing familiar, he ventures into a world of rich visual imagery where the ordinary is magically transformed into the exotic. Cameo roles include a female body builder, an ex-Olympic gymnast and a 12 foot python. 85 mins, 9 performers Kage Physical Theatre aims to discover new ways to integrate Helen Herbertson drama and theatrical illusion with & Ben Cobham dance, creating dance theatre which is rich and raw in its Morphia Series physicality and humour. Founded in 1996 by Kate Denborough and From Morpheus, son of Hypnos Gerard Van Dyck, Kage has toured and the God of Dreams, a series of internationally, winning the Grand Dean Walsh visual haikus, richly phantasmal and Sky’s body in motion Jury Prize at the 12th Saitama intimate. Audiences of 12 only are International Creative Dance Flesh: Memo taken to a secret location and enter radiated with the aesthetic Contest, Japan. a pitch black silence; as light grows A virtuosic solo dance/theatre work a figure moves in the gleaming For originality, content, about memory that involves the stillness of a subterranean world. beauty of exposed theatricality and sheer gaps in familial relationships, 45 mins, 1 performer entertainment Kage was performed in extraordinarily machinery...her live outstanding. contrasting dance phrases. A Helen Herbertson has been creating The Sydney Morning Herald culmination of 10 years of solo work intense, confronting and highly movement [is] doubled exploring domestic violence, detailed dance performance for homophobia and male sexuality over two decades winning Green with humour, candour and Room Awards including into animated screen fearlessness. Outstanding Creative Collaboration 70 mins, 1 performer in 1999 for Delirium. Ben Cobham’s company in space imagery. Eyeline lighting and design work has been Dean Walsh has devised and an influential contributor to dance C03 performed 16 short solos and one and theatre in Melbourne, with full-length work, touring nationally yearly Green Room nominations CO3 is a live virtual reality Founded by artistic directors John and in the UK. He has also and awards. Morphia Series has performance capturing the tensions McCormick and Hellen Sky, the collaborated and performed with been presented at the Melbourne between the human and ground-breaking Company In many performance practitioners. In and Adelaide Festivals, New Moves augmented body, the organic and Space applies technology to 2002 he won the Australian Dance (new territories), Glasgow and Asian cybernetic, in a merging of live movement with works that create Award for Outstanding Performance Next Wave, Tokyo. dance, animation and live cinema. dialogues between visual, aural and by a Male Dancer (in ADT’s The Age Surrounded by 3D film kinetic perceptions. The company of Unbeauty ) and the prestigious ...a combination of powerfully environments and animated has performed in major national and Robert Helpmann Scholarship simple stage mechanics and characters, a lone performer international festivals with CO3 which has allowed him to research compelling, perfectly distilled wearing a motion-capture suit appearing in the UK and China. and develop new work with Lloyd visuals, this insinuatingly emotive embarks on a journey through Newson of DV8 Physical Theatre in piece tapers down to a point of abstract terrain in a remarkable London and Paul Selwyn-Norton in touching human vulnerability... exploration of body and identity. Amsterdam. The Guardian, UK 45 mins, 1 performer ...a sublime mover who is not afraid to open his mouth...beautifully articulated...a mesmerising body in motion... RealTime 16 Gravity Feed ...subtle and hypnotic... Host An innovative collaboration between Sunday Age Gravity Feed Performance Ensemble and digital artist Horst Kiechle, Host is an event in which architecture is put into motion, and human emotions, which have their source in place, respond. In a monumental cardboard environment which shifts around the spectators, the movement style of Gravity Feed evokes a suspension of the everyday consciousness that is shaped by the traditional box within which most of our lives are contained. 60 mins, 8 performers
Gravity Feed is an all-male performance ensemble that has evolved a unique architectural performance-theatre, employing large sets to create potent, Dance Works Igneous Bernadette Walong subversive and densely atmospheric events. Movement, Murray-Anderson Road Body in Question Savage Burn objects, sound, light, live-feed video and audience are equal partners in Two duets, Kelly-Ann and Sue, dancers, Dance Works has An appealing and accessible Based on a poem, Savage Burn a traversal of visual arts, feature young female characters on produced over 140 new dance multimedia dance-theatre work refers to the tidal motions of the sea architecture and theatre. Host voyages of sexual self-discovery. works in its 20 year history. With a incorporating live performance, as a metaphor for the flow in toured to Paris as part of the Abstract yet accessible and strong focus on choreographic video and slide projections and a relationships and continues an Novembre Australien season in Host is spectacular–an intelligent and malicious trap laid by the intimate, this work displays Sandra development and research as well life-sized puppet. Body in Question ongoing exploration of dancing en 2002 produced by la Biennale Parker’s pleasure in the detailed as an outstanding performance portrays the true story of an pointe. On surfaces such as river nationale de danse du Val-de-Marne. Australian company Gravity Feed. Of this wise but brutally led subtlety of the body as memories of history, the company has Australian dancer who–after stones (Slipstream, Australian Ballet, adolescence are pondered and performed in major Australian and paralysing an arm in an accident– 1998), gravel (The Seed, NORPA, architectural frenzy, the spectators are the curious hostages... explored. international festivals and venues journeys through rehabilitation and 2000) and natural ochre (Ochres, 50 mins, 3 performers including Les Plateaux 2000 de la disability in recovery of self- Bangarra Dance Theatre, 1994-96), [the] Australians succeed without any concessions in weaving an Biennale nationale danse du Val-de- expression, finding new angles on pointe work has been explored in artistic link between themselves and the audience. Engaging many of Australia’s Marne, France and the Almada perceiving the body, and new ways an evocation of the movement of leading choreographers and Festival, Portugal. to move. long-legged water birds such as Le Monde 55 mins, 1 performer cranes and brolgas. Savage Burn premiered in 1999 with the Igneous’ interests lie in research, Australian Dance Theatre. process, interactions, exploring 30 mins, 10 performers diversity, challenging values, and interdisciplinary and cross-cultural Bernadette Walong has worked in research and collaboration. Dancer- dance, theatre, education and film. choreographer James Cunningham She has created works for leading and director-choreographer- national and international companies photographer-multimedia artist including Bangarra Dance Theatre Suzon Fuks utilise true stories, where she co-created the acclaimed details of daily life, the spectacular Ochres. She has been a and the unspectacular in multimedia choreographer-in-residence in performances with a strong dance Scotland, Cuba and Asia. base. Body In Question has been Paul Gazzola presented in Australia, Europe and Walong gives the girls in Asia and will return to Europe particular great moves–feet Bird Talk #1 – 7 in 2004. sharply en pointe at the end of loosely drooping bodies. The transformation of self is He resides between Berlin and Dance Australia ongoing–we are in a constant state Perth, presenting works both in Reinventing the of becoming other/another. Australia and internationally. He choreographic space... Exposing the dancer’s life of was the inaugural recipient of a mimicry, this work investigates the WA Performing Arts Exchange to A flag-ship show of notion of the self and movement as South Africa and a founding expenditure: replaceable, reusable. member of the Perth-based id339 the festival [2003 The Bird Talk series has toured to dance group who have performed festivals in Melbourne, Johannes- in Europe, Australia and South Biennale Internationale burg, Portugal, Sydney and Perth. Africa. des Arts de la 50 mins, 1 performer ...an intimate choreographic Marionette]. Paul Gazzola’s diverse arts practice study integrating mixed media includes dance, performance, with integrity. Telerama, Paris video, installation and set design. The Star, Johannesburg 18 19 Chapel of Change Stuttgarter Zeitung Julie–Anne Long Tearoom MissXL In an experiment with depth of field, spatial consciousness and illusion, A 3-part solo which slips between the audience peers down into a dance, theatre and contemporary mysterious tearoom, witnessing the burlesque. With grand theatrical fantasies of the proprietor and his manners and unnerving intimacy female clients. Tearoom is a world MissXL cavorts, recites and of unconscious wanderings, magic serenades as she transforms from and metaphor where erotica is a terrifying ice-cream vendor to vehicle for metaphysical tantalising femme fatale and fading speculation. dance star. 85 mins, 3 performers 90 mins, 1 performer
Chapel of Change is an innovative Formerly associate director of One company working in physical Extra Company, Julie-Anne Long is a theatre and dance forms. Touring freelance performer/choreographer has included Jordan, Lebanon and who creates her own idiosyncratic Syria and opening the 9th Cairo and provocative solo works as well International Festival at the Cairo as choreographing extensively for Opera House. Tearoom was awarded 2 Green Room Awards including Most Innovative New Form Theatre. ...dangerous...rife with irony, ...a haunting, beautifully inspired episodic movement piece...one erotica, fear and loneliness. of our most extraordinary companies. Revolver Sunday Art, ABC Radio
Tess de Quincey Expressions Dance Company Nerve 9 Virtually Richard3 Weaving between the work of three Tracing the fortunes of acclaimed Australian artists, poet Shakespeare’s Richard III as if he is Amanda Stewart, digital sequencer on the slow, inexorable cycle of a Debra Petrovitch and new media wheel of fortune, this work focuses artist Francesca da Rimini, and in on the women in the play and their response to writings by Julia anguish, fury and terror as the Kristeva, dancer Tess de Quincey attractive and wicked rogue goes invites the audience into a feminine about destroying their lives. space where body and word 82 minutes, 8 performers coexist. A raw and edgy layering of visual and sonic poetry interwoven Under the direction of Maggi with a choreography drawn from Sietsma, Expressions creates works Eastern and Western dance in which speech, dance and visual traditions. media combine and confront each 60 mins, 1 performer other. Radical yet accessible, Expressions has performed in 13 Choreographer and dancer Tess de countries and in 1997 was the Quincey has worked extensively in recipient of the prestigious Sidney Europe, Japan and Australia as Myer Award for Excellence in the performer, teacher and director. Her Performing Arts. The company’s company De Quincey Co has its extensive touring includes base in Body Weather–a synthesis international dance festivals in of eastern and western Taipei, Stuttgart, Linz, Beijing performance traditions with an and Tokyo. emphasis on site-specific and durational works. Nerve 9 was Explosive dance theatre. presented as part of Novembre Australien produced by la Biennale nationale de danse du ...intense, many-layered, intricately worked creations where the Val-de-Marne, Paris in 2002. body, decentred and edgy, negotiates the mutated, arcane landscape of contemporary culture. De Quincey and her collaborators have created an epitaph for our time. Saturday Age 20 The West Australian Christos Linou Sue Healey Company
Amphibitos: a militant dance Fine Line Terrain ritual Fine Line Terrain explores the fragile international collaboration. Her In a sinister, comical investigation of spaces we inhabit–the fine lines award winning film Niche was a corporeality and militancy, a man separating order from chaos, finalist in the IMZ Dance Screen responds to meeting a frog with gravity from levity–with emotionally (Monaco Dance Forum 2002) and trance and apocalyptic utterances. charged dance that maps the she has an ongoing relationship Amphibitos examines the fragility of precariousness of our relationship with The Aichi Arts Centre in boundaries between self and to the world and to each other. Nagoya Japan, creating 4 major environment and how the human 60 mins, 5 performers performance events with Japanese inability to metamorphose leads us and Australian performers instead to alter that environment. Choreographer Sue Healey is a (1997-2000).02). The work incorporates ritual acts, recipient of an Australia Council vaudeville comedy, voice, film and Dance Board Fellowship and has a ...a dynamic mix of natural and text from The Book of Job, The reputation for creating dance of highly stylised movement, sharp Koran and the Dead Sea Scrolls. sensual, physical and imaginative and creamy phrasing...a 40 mins, 1 performer complexity, traversing film, memorable performance. installation, performance and The Sydney Morning Herald. Christos Linou is a choreographer and performer integrating dance, performance, literature, visual imagery and voice with new and dance and performance companies. Dance North
Double Thrill
In this dance theatre double bill, Dance North tours nationally, with a Bodies in the Library, strong commitment to regional and choreographed by Brian Lucas, remote communities in Queensland, Delia Silvan explores the analogy between and to China, Japan, Korea, human bodies and books–dancers’ Vietnam and Thailand. Night Vision stories are embodied as literary genres. Elegy, about the need to ...a host of outstanding pieces Four musicians and one dancer dance, is choreographed by artistic which combine to make a inhabit a world of hidden impulses, director Jane Pirani and dedicated beautiful tribute to the company’s alienation and compelling beauty, to the memory of her dance founder. interacting in the parallel languages mentor mother, Anne Roberts. The Townsville Bulletin of dance and music. The 100min, 7 performers boundaries separating dreamer and dreamed dissolve. Perspectives between musicians and dancer shift, kaleidoscope and emerge re-formed. 55 mins, 5 performers
Delia Silvan has worked with the Australian Dance Theatre, Lucy Guerin, Neil Adams and Dance Works and was a founding member traditional technologies. of Leigh Warren + Dancers. She SHOTT dance theatre appears in the Paul Cox film The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky. She was The Morning After, the Night awarded Outstanding Performance Before by an Individual at the Australian Dance Awards in 1999. In 2001 performances that shift she launched her career as an A flirtatious, farcical, sassy solo expectations of physical and dance independent dancer and show that careens across the theatre. Shannon Bott is a choreographer. spectrum of love, lust and choreographer, performer, indifference. Laying bare the search workshop facilitator and teacher of ...a dancer of spellbinding for Mr or Ms Right, the work is dance and physical theatre. She presence who has that rarest driven by athletic dance, humour received the Dancer to Watch, quality of giving the impression and monologues that leave the Dance Australia Award in 2000. that every part of her body has a audience blushing. unique intelligence and 45 mins, 1 performer ...a compelling performer, expressiveness, and yet the dancing with strength and whole always coheres. SHOTT dance theatre generates elasticity and prepared to take The Australian challenging and engaging risks. 23
Shelley Lasica
History Situation
Five characters in an unidentified, enclosed interior. Something happens. The drama unfolds. Set in a particular time and place without ever describing or limiting its possibilities for the audience, History Situation explores narrative as architecture in its structuring of character and identity. 50 mins, 5 performers
Shelley Lasica makes and performs dance work in Australia and abroad, generally locating her work in non-theatre spaces. She works solo and with small ensembles of visual artists, video makers and composers.
Unlike Lasica’s earlier more emotionally austere dances, this is a compassionate piece. While the choreographic language is as complex, it seems to mark a departure...blessed with dancers who give beautifully defined performances. The Age
skadada
Electronic Big Top
An innovative multimedia multi- artform performance combining breathtaking circus, virtuoso dance, martial arts, aerial dance, cutting edge visuals, original live music, acrobatics, illusion and electronic ...a miracle of daring, dance technique, soundscapes. Electronic Big Top has been performed in major athleticism and intelligence. festivals including the 4th Shanghai International Arts Festival in 2002. Sydney Dance Company The Financial Review 70 mins, 12-18 performers Ellipse skadada is an innovative multi- artform company featuring Ellipse is a mesmerising work that His repertoire includes works for The performances that are exciting, combines bold physicality with subtle Australian Ballet, Nederlands Dans enthralling and entertaining. artistry. Abstract and non-narrative, it Theater, the Royal New Zealand skadada has toured extensively was created by Graeme Murphy in Ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov and The throughout Australia and Asia to response to the powerful and eclectic Metropolitan Opera, New York. He public and critical acclaim. music of Australian composer has led Sydney Dance Company on Matthew Hindson. Nine scores form more than 20 international tours to small chapters that take the dancers Asia, Europe, North and South through moments of introspective America, and has numerous ...a new style performance of beauty and dazzling virtuosity. Australian Dance awards and a multi-media dream 85 mins, 17 performers Helpmann Award for Best acrobatics...an intense and Choreography. excellent experience. This premiere contemporary dance Shanghai Xinmin Evening Post company has been led since 1976 [Murphy] gives us a space, by artistic director Graeme Murphy music, light, forms and who is widely recognised for his movements, then fuses and uncanny ability to illuminate music in animates them with his typically a definitive choreographic language. generous spirit. The Australian 24 25
Swift’s synergy between artforms Helen Omand and Co. reaches a rarely obtained balance... Up Front and Naked Warby’s harmony is spectacular. What do we allow and what do we and celebrated, Omand creates keep hidden? Pushing the challenging yet accessible works. Herald Sun boundaries of the unspoken She has worked with companies in consensus underlying social Europe and Australia including the behaviour Up Front and Naked is an Rose Street Theatre (NY), Danswerk investigation of new media, sound, Plaats, Muiderpoort Theatre, the text and dance, testing our borders Liminal Institute (Netherlands), Perth Ros Warby TasDance as both performers and viewers in Institute of Contemporary Arts, public spaces. Performance Space and the Swift Fair Game 30 mins, 4 performers Australian Dance Theatre. An elegant and humorous Fair Game is inspired by imagery Restless Dance Company Fiona Malone Viewing live performance as a Omand...pushes the boundaries interweaving of dynamic vignettes from contemporary Australian ‘temporary autonomous zone’ where of conventional theatre and that traverse the many physical, author Carmel Bird and an 1832 Starry Eyed The Obcell difference, multiplicity and the non- dance...a compelling performer. physiological and emotional states lithograph by Alfred Ducote in homogenised can be acknowledged Dance Australia of a female character, Swift centres which women are depicted as We all have dreams. Between the Disturbingly beautiful interactive on the complex, often unknowable butterflies. The work explores passionate desire for stardom and dance theatre, multimedia qualities that prompt themes of entrapment and release, the reality of shifts at factories, fast performance using sensors and transformations. Ros Warby physical and intellectual, as food outlets and part time work, the surveillance cameras, reflecting the continues her explorations with film, interpreted by choreographers Restless youth ensemble dancers relationship between humans, composition and solo dance, Phillip Adams and Natalie Weir. explore definitions of success and movement and technology. A appearing with long time 80 mins, 8 performers the pathways and obstacles to human experimental subject is collaborators, cellist Helen achieving their goals. placed in isolation and regulated by Mountfort and designer/filmmaker TasDance is a dynamic regionally 50 mins, 11 performers an interactive behaviour Margie Medlin. based dance company which modification cell. The performer 50 mins, 2 performers develops challenging and Restless Dance Company works wears sensor-based technology accessible, innovative with young people aged 15-26, designed for the use of dancers A highly respected performer and contemporary dance. Natalie Weir with and without disabilities, to and composers at the Danish dancemaker for 15 years, Warby’s has created work for most of the create inspiring dance theatre and Institute of Electro-acoustic Music. choreographic work stems from her nation’s major dance companies as workshop programs. The company 65 mins, 1 performer ongoing commitment to the well as the American Ballet Theatre believes that people with disabilities development of improvisation and and the Houston Ballet. Phillip can be powerful, expressive and Fiona Malone’s extensive work solo performance practice. Her Adams worked in New York for distinctive performers and create with dance companies and three Green Room Awards include over a decade before returning to dynamic dance theatre which independent experimental artists Best Solo Performance (2002). She establish BalletLab and has been redefines the nature of dance. has included the CH-Tanztheater has toured her work to the Adelaide widely commissioned by national in Zurich, Opera Australia, The Festival and to Europe and the USA, dance companies and the Do most of the Restless dancers Australian Dance Theatre and 2002-03. Guongdong Modern Dance have the kinds of bodies usually the Belgian multimedia, dance Company in China. associated with dance? No, they and technology company, Warby has turned out to be one don’t...[Restless] confirms the Charleroi Dansers. Malone of Australia’s leading dancer- Makes sharp points about power of movement to stir the was awarded a 2003 Fellowship choreographers. objectification, brutalised imagination and the emotions. by the Australian Choreographic The Australian emotions and potential terror. The Australian Centre. The Australian 26
Trevor Patrick
Cinnabar Field
A contemplation on the transformations of self that disguise the boundaries between our internal and external worlds. In the first chapter, body movement seems to unlock real and imagined memories embedded in the surface of a wall. In the second, projected images (such as the performer as a boy, Lisa O’Neill and bodies caught between action and stillness) blur with the live Fugu San action. The highly textured sound and movement vocabulary is based A solo work in which a series of on the sensation of collapse in the dramatic shifts in focus draw the body–falling down and falling up. audience into the performer’s 40 mins, 1 performer emotional world. A cycle of entrances and exits, strange stage Dancer and choreographer Trevor traversals and transformations plus Patrick has received Green Room Walton et al shifting soundscape from DJ Emma Awards for Direction, Outstanding Pursey create an hypnotic dance Creative Collaboration and Best No hope no reason collaborate on a project-by-project reverie. Male dancer. His dance films have basis in impressive multimedia 25 mins, 2 performers been shown in Videodanza, Italy, Originally performed in a disused creations. Directed by dancer- Le Biennale Internationale du film pool hall, this blend of dance, choreographer Jude Walton, the Lisa O’Neill is a performer and sur l’art, Paris and the Dance on projections, song and text is based company makes work for a choreographer whose practice is Screen Festival, London. He has on dreams and the dichotomies of variety of spaces: art galleries and informed by the focus, clarity and taught and danced in Australia reason and feeling, love and terror. theatres as well as specific sites. power of the Suzuki actor training and internationally. 50 mins, 7 performers method and philosophy, creating ...beautiful and intriguing. and performing work that is Walton et al brings together artists Eyeline transcendental in its intensity. from different disciplines to O’Neill has received a Matilda Award and her solo works have toured nationally and to New Moves [A] consummate dance artist... [Patrick] Paul O’Sullivan (new territories) Glasgow, 2000, 2002 and Asia Contemporary transcends dancing to suggest that he inhabits Shopping Fashion Travel...and This is an ambitious and Dance Festival, Osaka, 2002. Genocide! ...a host of moods through a different time and place. The Bulletin This solo work explores our Sue Peacock subtle idea, constantly gesture and gaze–astounding, duplicity in the state of the world brilliant, utterly captivating. and explodes buzzwords like Tempting Fate surprising with its The Herald, Scotland globalisation, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction in a In an attempt to change the course juxtapositions of suspense combination of frenetic movement, of a fatal shooting, 4 dancers and 2 stand-up comedy, slapstick, actors play out alternate scenarios. argument, theatre, dance and the As the plot unravels, the flaws in and humour, sudden pauses low tech world of camcorders. their relationships are set against 40 mins, 1 performer technicolour iconic images from the and transitions from close She is funny, confrontational, golden age of Hollywood. Paul O’Sullivan has worked with 30 mins, 6 performers connection to cool separation. erotic. She left her audience significant Australian dance companies for the past 13 years This project company, led by cheering for more. and collaborated on diverse respected Perth choreographer Sue West Australian projects in dance, theatre and film. Peacock, showcases six Australian He has created solo shows artists of significant national The Observer Review, UK exploring the use of voice as well as experience and reputation. Peacock body to layer meaning. has been a member of the innovative id339 Dancegroup and ...he flings himself into his an instigator of STRUT, the support attacks with ferocious organisation for independent dance abandon...O’Sullivan has the rare artists in Western Australia. Her gift of being able to meld pure latest work, Give up the Ghost, dance and verbal theatre. premieres at the Perth International The Canberra Times Arts Festival in 2004. 28 Nalina Wait [Munaldjali is] stunning...the dancers appear sole possessed by the spirit of the land...one of
A trio of interdisciplinary artists nationally and internationally and the standout performances of the Perth explore the relationship between is currently working as part of the International Arts Festival 2001. movement, light and sound in a performance group Devastation dynamic loop of influence and Menu with dancer Lizzie Thomson The Sunday Times, WA response. In three distinct and musician Clayton Thomas who movement territories, shifting also join her in sole. landscapes of colour and intensity, the rhythms of movement and live [Wait’s] limbs are articulate and sound create a complex and neat, the lines of her body are unexpected dynamic. sharp and clear, sometimes 15 mins, 3 performers expressing mere quivers of sensibility...The rhythms of her Nalina Wait has a history of movement are complex, improvised performance and was a unexpected and pleasingly founding member of Rosalind uneven. Crisp’s stella b. She has toured RealTime
STEPS Youth Dance Company
Edge Test
Playing off the competitive tension fundamental to reality TV and quiz shows and bringing it into a dance context, Edge Test pushes to the limit 16 curiously compelling contestants in a ‘dream home’ Stompin Youth Dance Co. setting that is destined to come crashing down. SYNC 55 mins, 16 performers
What goes on when young people STEPS is a vibrant and energetic get together and hang out pool- dance company of young people, side? Performed in a swimming aiming to empower them to create pool, breathtaking choreography their own culture through West Australian Ballet Gerard Van Dyck reminiscent of Esther Williams accessible, relevant and appealing movies combines with intense works. With a national reputation for Buzz Dance Theatre Scorched The Collapsible Man youth energy straight from mosh pit high calibre workshops and thrashes, carving up the water with performances, the company tours Fracture Teacups and plates, x-rays and A dynamic program from three In a surreal, vaudeville setting a synchronised precision. regionally and nationally. other images feature in Paige Australian choreographers: Stephen hapless preacher lacking humility 50 mins, 9 performers Inspired by the charming and Gordon’s choreography. Page’s Munaldjali, a work of attempts to interact with the ...a fascinating, multi-layered alarming versatility of the living 65 mins 6 performers enormous power drawing on the collapsible world around him. Led by artistic directors Luke show that deserves to be seen skeleton, this work looks at bones choreographer’s Indigenous Influenced by the silent films of the George and Bec Reid and with a more than once. and their wondrous capacity to Buzz Dance Theatre is a company heritage; Simone Clifford’s dramatic 1920s and utilising dance, drama commitment to taking the arts into The West Australian grow, move, break and heal. for children and young people, and inventive, hauntingly poetic and puppetry, this solo performance extraordinary landscapes and public nationally and internationally ballet Going Home; and Simon is about a man who learns to spaces, Stompin Youth has built a recognised for its contribution to Dow’s magnificent interpretation of accept the principles of uncertainty. reputation for relentless fast paced the inseparable fields of arts and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring where 50 mins, 1 performer action in dance. education. Buzz creates exhilarating primal rhythms, folk themes and performances and workshops that ritual emerge. Gerard Van Dyck is a dancer, actor, ...encourages young people to increase the awareness and 120 mins, 18 performers choreographer and co-founder of use and delight in their bodies so experience of contemporary dance Kage Physical Theatre. The skillfully [that] the spirit generated and movement. West Australian Ballet, the longest Collapsible Man won two by their work is still palpable. established ballet company Melbourne Fringe Festival awards RealTime ...visually and aurally operating in Australia, is an in 2002. compelling... accessible, adventurous and The West Australian dynamic contemporary ballet ...an immediate hit at this year’s company of international standards Melbourne Fringe Festival...Van and the most prolific Dyck uses all his dancerly skills commissioning dance company in in a very understated fashion, the Australia, showcasing the country’s result is an endearing finest talent. presentation. RealTime 30 31 Leigh Warren + Dancers
Quick Brown Fox
Elegant, quirky and visually stunning, this collaboration between William Forsythe and Leigh Warren creates a unique movement vocabulary, a 26 letter alphabet that follows the pangram, Quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 62 mins, 7 performers
Leigh Warren + Dancers has toured nationally and internationally with its unique style of presentation. With sensuous movement, technical virtuosity and choreography that reveals an exquisite attention to poetic detail and subtlety, the company has won the Adelaide Critics Circle Award, three Australian Australian contemporary dance: linkups across the globe, from choreographers, visual and seen Stephen Page lead this part of Dance Awards and the Sidney Myer an introduction glossy, fluid dance to hip hop, from installation artists, composers, DJs, the field for over a decade. The Performing Arts 2000 Group Award. fusions of Aboriginal and new forms lighting designers and dramaturgs. surprising co-location of Page’s Quick Brown Fox won three 2001 to dance on film. Bangarra Dance Theatre dancers Green Room awards. Since its Australian contemporary dance Recent developments performing his Rites (1998) to formation in 1993 the company has enjoys an almost embarrassing Origins This new look takes two broad Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with the performed in 3 Adelaide Festivals abundance of artists for a To many, the very multiplicity of sweeps. Helen Herbertson’s quiet Australian Ballet, proved a critical and toured to Europe and Asia. population of near 20 million and a genres makes the term but high-impact Descansos (1996), New York success in 1999. Leigh Warren danced with the profession that is barely 40 years Delirium (1999) and Morphia Series Australian Ballet, Ballet Rambert, old. Sydney Dance Company leads ‘contemporary dance’ redundant, (2002) reveal movement scaled What distinguishes Page’s Nureyev and Friends and the the 15 companies which form the suggesting a maturing field where down to portentous fragments with choreography from his peers’ is the Nederlands Dans Theater and spine of this profession, celebrating anything seems possible and space and light manipulated to transformation of authentic directed the Australian Dance a record 28 years under one artistic orthodoxies, even recent ones, conjure the disorienting image of Aboriginal material by a gutsy urban Theatre. director, Graeme Murphy who, like need no longer constrain creativity. his sinuous, quirky and often The influences shaping today’s performers floating from one plane aesthetic. The taut sinuousness of a to another. Ros Warby’s grounded reptilian solo for his late ...elegant lines and puckish irreverent choreography, is now a contemporary dance differ markedly ...a beautifully written and performed work by improvisations with cello and brother Russell in Fish (1998) good humour. The Australian household name. from those of its instigators such as an Australian choreographer at the peak of his Viennese-born Gertrud soprano or found sound sources combined anthropomorphism with Adelaide’s tempestuous history Bodenwieser whose expressive, (original home, 1999) and erstwhile rap moves. Bernadette maturity...unashamedly aesthetic...without ever found Australian Dance Theatre circular Central European Dance projections (Swift, 2003), like Walong’s quieter work shaped the (ADT), established in Adelaide by offered a liberating non-ballet Rosalind Crisp’s performances with women’s subtle nurturing losing its dynamic inventiveness. Elizabeth Cameron Dalman in 1965, aesthetic to Australian dance from sound artists (raft/tread 2003) movements in Ochres (1997), welcoming its sixth director Garry the 1940s onward. Nederlands achieve a striking architectonic developed with Page and The Canberra Times Stewart in 2000, while in 2003, Dans Theater’s intellectual quality by creating immense visual Djakapurra Munyarrayan, Queensland’s Expressions Dance seriousness and visceral movement and aural tensions moving between Bangarra’s then cultural adviser and Company celebrated nineteen years built on Graham technique was line, shape and weight. totemic performer. The advent of under its founding director Maggi introduced by Jaap Flier at the Bangarra dancer Frances Rings as Sietsma. Since 1997, under artistic Australian Dance Theatre and At the other end of this new look a new choreographic voice was director Gideon Obarzanek, Chunky Dance Company NSW spectrum, Phillip Adams, Gideon warmly welcomed in 2002 when Move’s funky popular culture stamp (subsequently Sydney Dance Obarzanek, Lucy Guerin, Garry she revealed an unpretentious and has fiercely courted a younger club Company), a dance theatre which Stewart and several emerging judicious use of metaphor with softcore inc and design-savvy audience both would inform most of the artists explore sexuality, popular narrative, traditional and here and overseas. companies which followed in the culture and end-of-millennium contemporary moves in Rations, Private Dancer 1970s. Other American influences anxiety with DJs mixing sound in her first major work. In smaller companies such as such as Merce Cunningham, situ, explosive, robotic and Bringing the flesh back into dance, Wendy McPhee performs Queensland’s Dance North (founded Yvonne Rainer and Trisha Brown repeated, refracted movement in In the vast area of the Northern the animal back into the act, the entertaining and provocative work 1985) and Tasmania’s Tasdance and the advent of release designer gear, and a deeply Territory, Tracks Inc., directed by devil into the light, Private Dancer that blends popular forms and (founded 1981), Jane Pirani and technique, quickly replaced Graham questioning and ironic tone. David McMicken and Tim Newth, journeys beyond the comfortable in media, and has worked with Annie Greig respectively balance and her progeny. engages in collaborations with a confronting and darkly comic contemporary dance, performance mainstage, education, development These developments suggest a Aboriginal communities to shape work that plays with notions of and circus companies nationally and extensive touring to survive Yet all this, like early cinema, seems desire to move beyond the new work in traditional homelands. public and private sexual desire. and internationally. McPhee is while continuing to attract significant like ancient history wiped out by the seemingly more interior processes These are important works for the This is a one-woman cabaret in 13 acclaimed for edgy, unsettling choreographers and designers to sheer weight and rapidity of change enjoyed by an earlier generation Territory’s hugely diverse population parts, moving between karaoke bar, one-woman shows that investigate work with their companies. wrought by computer technology, working from the early 1980s with and provide a contrast to the sex club, game show, bingo hall female sexuality. cross-arts hybridity, contact Nanette Hassall at Dance Works, burgeoning contemporary and stand-up comedy, and Dozens of small project groups and improvisation, popular culture and Russell Dumas at Dance Exchange, Indigenous arts scene elsewhere in requiring active audience ...her particular blend of cabaret, independent artists, many of them fusions of styles and genres. All this Kai Tai Chan (with his distinctive the country. Torres Strait Islander participation. dance, burlesque and strip tease represented on these pages, plus the new wave of influential dance theatre approach) and and sometime Bangarra performer 55 mins, 1 performer generates a unique experience. provide the crucial and dynamic European dance, from Wim Graeme Watson at One Extra, all Albert David is making works that RealTime counterpoint to the more Vandekybus and Anne Teresa de significant artists with a pivotal celebrate the distinctive culture of established companies. The Keersmaeker in Belgium to Maguy influence and legacy. his people (The Giz, 2003). combined platform of company, Marin and Mathilde Monier in project and independent sectors France, have guaranteed a new look Cultural riches Australia’s relationship with Asia has offers audiences anything from to Australian dance since the early Indigenous identity and the crucial been reflected in the taking up of unadorned movement process to 1990s. What characterises this look freedom to fuse contemporary butoh, Min Tanaka’s Body Weather high-end technology and realtime is an organic collaboration between ideas with traditional dance have (exemplified in the work of Tess de 32 33 Quincey and Nikki Heywood) and Nurturing dance Contemporary Arts (PICA) produces filmmakers shown at the IMZ Dance the methodology of Suzuki Tadashi If Victoria seems to dominate the Dancers are Space-eaters, a festival Screen (Monaco Dance Forum (Lisa O’Neill, Frank Productions and scene, that is because its five of dance, forums and workshops 2002). Erin Brannigan’s introduction Zen Zen Zo). Tony Yap, who tertiary dance courses graduate with local (Paul O’Sullivan, Sete Tele to this phenomenon follows. explores butoh, trance and large numbers of new artists each and Olivia Millard among others) shamanism, performs with his year as well as offering supported and interstate artists. Hellen Sky and John McCormick, idiosyncratic collaborator Japanese- opportunities for emerging and mid- directors of Company in Space, born butoh artist Yumi Umiumare in career artists. Their number and South Australia too is enjoying an have made dramatic inroads into the ongoing work, How could you visibility have exploded, mirrored by improved focus on dance with ADT computer technology, satellite even begin to understand? more than 40 nominations in the at its new home at Wonderland linkups and virtual dance in real Umiumare is fast becoming new independent category of the Ballroom. Its Ignition program, like time. Their investigations are earning Australia’s funniest stand-up dance 2003 Australian Dance Awards. the Adelaide Festival Centre’s international and local respect, comedian. These works are a sure Dancehouse, under its artistic Inspace, encourages new work reducing the sense of distance sign that Australian contemporary director Helen Herbertson is from a growing number of younger between Australian and the rest of dance has come of age. stimulating new activity such as artists like Naida Chinner, Helen the world. A different kind of partnering Ausdance Victoria in Omand, Astrid Pill and director- international connectedness is Developing choreographers choreographic development choreographer Ingrid Voorendt or evident in work informed by gay The challenge to develop new workshops, and enhancing its dancers from the two resident culture coming from Dean Walsh, choreographers is a considerable status as a hub for the dance companies, ADT and Leigh Warren Trevor Patrick, Phillip Adams, Brian one and is being encouraged by community. Chunky Move has + Dancers. Carbee and others–surely federal and state government arts initiated creative mentoring and contributors to a global sub-genre. funding bodies and met by a management brokerage for The tertiary dance sector has number of companies and special emerging artists. proven fertile ground for Audiences and markets projects. The outcomes are as yet choreographers across the country Thanks to continuing government- intangible but are anticipated with New South Wales has seen a major by commissioning new work made funded programs, the Playing optimism. The Australian shift with the centring of studio with students. The Victorian College Australia touring program and Choreographic Centre (artistic practice and improvisation at Omeo of the Arts, the West Australian Australia Council and state arts director Mark Gordon) in Canberra, Studio where Rosalind Crisp leads Academy of the Performing Arts ministry presentation grants, a the national capital, is another case by demonstrating both fine work and Queensland University of growing body of new choreography in point. Since it opened in and entrepreneurship which have Technology are outstanding. travels far beyond originating cities, November 1996, the centre has resulted in her being invited to Responding to education funding revitalising existing audiences and offered 30 mentored fellowships for Paris’ Biennale nationale de danse cuts which have limited student attracting dance-curious first-timers. emerging and independent artists, du Val-de-Marne (with other performing opportunities, Nanette The decommissioning, however, of 80 residencies for established and Sydney artists, Gravity Feed and Hassall has established Link the national touring program Made mid-career artists as well as building Tess De Quincey) and several (directed by Chrissie Parrott in to Move in 2001 while reducing work with gifted older dancers. It European centres. Her involvement 2003), a graduating dancers some opportunities has has also commissioned 25 new in the berlinXchange at company at WAAPA and, with simultaneously generated more works, the latest from ACT-based Performance Space demonstrates Cheryl Stock at QUT, has arranged entrepreneurial activity and emerging talent, Paul Zivkovich. how cultural exchange, not just prestigious performance innovative marketing across the touring is highly valued by artists. opportunities for students in Asia. ever-evolving dance sector. Expressions Dance Company and The Antistatic 2002 dance event the Queensland and West and an emerging choreographers’ A key supportive role is played by If audience building is the major Australian Ballets fostered the early workshop hosted by Sydney Dance Ausdance, the national professional challenge for Australian dance, work of Natalie Weir whose Mirror Company initiated by former service organisation. With offices in marketing it has become a growth Mirror (2000) was the first full-length Ausdance NSW director Gregory all states it provides information, industry thanks to agents, contemporary dance work Nash are just two responses to the research resources, advocacy and a producers and federal and state commissioned by the flagship need for aesthetic development. network of invaluable contacts. funding agencies promoting work Australian Ballet. Contemporary Support and mentorship are offered at international markets. In recent choreographers are invited into this by Sydney’s One Extra Company Going international years successful overseas tours by previously alien space, including (executive producer Amanda Card), Internationally, Australian artists and Chunky Move, Australian Dance Gideon Obarzanek and Stephen a producer and facilitator for the companies are regularly invited to Theatre, Lucy Guerin, Ros Warby Dance Exchange, Michel Caserta festival provided Australian dance The Australian Ballet Page whose indigenous- city’s expanding independent tour and appear in festivals across and others have consolidated of la Biennale nationale de danse with a major opportunity to extend contemporary Munaldjali for the dance sector, and Performance the northern hemisphere or to take Australia’s presence internationally. du Val-de-Marne chose four its growing international reach. Australia’s national ballet company Burnett as resident choreographer West Australian Ballet in 2002 was Space. up residencies across Asia. Rosemary Hinde’s company Hirano Australian works for the Novembre presents some 200 performances alongside Welch and Baynes. a great success. Following the participation in March has staged five Little Asia Dance Australien festival in Paris 2002 Lee Christofis each year and tours nationally Smaller cities thrive with 2000 of a large contingent of tours with a handful of artists from from Chunky Move, Tess De and internationally. Looking overseas for the best of The Melbourne-based Australian independent dance. In Brisbane a Australian artists at Glasgow’s New Australia and Asia, boosting Quincey, Gravity Feed and Rosalind Lee Christofis is a Melbourne-based international choreography has Ballet has, it should be noted, series of collectives including, most Moves (new territories) festival Australia’s profile in a context of Crisp. The 2003 Melbourne reviewer, writer, and broadcaster on The traditions of classical ballet are brought the works of luminaries spawned many senior recently, The Emergency Project, several have been invited back as cultural exchange. This small scale International Arts Festival dance and theatre. well represented in the company’s such as George Balanchine, William contemporary dance artists over its have featured work by Brian Lucas, guest artists. International attention promotion of independent artists is reciprocated by hosting Odile diverse repertoire as is a wealth of Forsythe, Nacho Duato, Twyla 41-year history, like Leigh Warren, Lisa O’Neill, Jean Tally, Shaaron does mean however that some of crucial in the wider dance ecology. Duboc’s Centre Choréographique This is a revised version of the 20th and 21st century Tharp, James Kudelka, Maurice whose South Australian company Boughen and others. New cross- our most adventurous artists make Recent Australia Council initiatives National de Franche-Comté à essay that appeared in the 2000 choreography. Resident Béjart, Jirí Kylián and Frederick Leigh Warren + Dancers won three cultural groups like polytoxic their careers in Europe and the in New York, Berlin and Japan will Belfort, Marseilles-based Kubilaï edition of In Repertoire, A Guide to choreographers such as Stanton Ashton into The Australian Ballet’s of the prestigious 1999 Australian including Leah Shelton, Fez Fa’nana USA. The list of dancers alone is support smaller companies and Khan Investigations, and Salia nï Australian Contemporary Dance. Welch and Stephen Baynes have repertoire. Dance Awards for its work including and others, are exciting interest. enormous. However after significant independent artists while assisting Seydou, from Burkina Faso in West been responsible for many of the Warren’s Shaker-inspired Shimmer Bonemap (Rebecca Youdell, Russell overseas experience, many better known companies secure Africa. The exchange also included new Australian works created on Regular overseas touring involves (1998). Under all seven of its artistic Milledge) in Cairns in Northern Australians–Russell Dumas, Meryl greater overseas exposure. The a significant professional the company’s dancers along with seasons in the United States, Asia directors, the Australian Ballet has a Queensland innovatively integrate Tankard, Phillip Adams, Lucy Council’s Australian Performing development program. guest choreographers such as and Europe. In recent years The long history of commissioning new dance with new media. Western Guerin, Kate Champion, Rebecca Arts Market held every two years in Graeme Murphy, Stephen Page and Australian Ballet has undertaken works and since 2002 David Australian independent artists, led Hilton and Michael Whaites–do Adelaide continues to be crucial Thematically devoted to the body, Meryl Tankard. For 2004, David successful tours to New York, McAllister has expanded its by choreographer and dancer Sue return to enrich dance here. for dance companies new to the the 2003 Melbourne Festival McAllister, artistic director and a Singapore, Shanghai and New contemporary profile by Peacock, have formed STRUT to Film, video and new media have international producers and showcased numerous Australian former principal dancer with the Zealand. commissioning its second full- secure significant new creative provided fertile ground too for the agencies who come to see them. dance productions side by side with company, has commissioned new length contemporary work, Wild opportunities. Members include export of work from technology- major imports. With an industry works from Christopher Wheeldon, Artistic Director: David McAllister Swans, from another former Claudia Alessi, Jo Pollitt, Margrete happy Australia. Tracie Mitchell, Sue In one of the most significant events forum, conferences, invaluable Simone Clifford, Paulina Quinteros General Manager: Richard Evans company member Meryl Tankard Helgeby, Shannon Bott and Stefan Healey and Cazerine Barry are just for dance here in recent times, the masterclasses and the presence of and Elizabeth Hill, and has [email protected] for 2003. Karlsson. The Perth Institute of three Australian choreographer- Franco-Australian Contemporary visiting dance presenters, the appointed senior artist Adrian www.australianballet.com.au 34 35
Dance screen in Australia the One Small Room television Principal funding credits series. Shaun Parker’s NO, and In recent years, ‘dance screen’ has Reid’s short film, Luke, both did well Kay Armstrong - NSW Ministry for Dance North - Australia Council, Council; Leigh Warren + Dancers - (Wendy McPhee) - Arts Tasmania, gained momentum internationally. at overseas festivals and Louise the Arts, Australia Council; Arts Queensland, Townsville City Arts SA, Australia Council; Julie-Ann Australia Council; Steps Youth This is not the documentation of Taube has been honing her skills Australian Ballet - Arts Victoria, Council; Dance Works - Arts Long - NSW Ministry for the Arts, Dance Company - ArtsWA, dance but dance as the basis for since she completed a course at Australia Council, NSW Ministry for Victoria, Australia Council; Tess De Australia Council; Lucy Guerin Australia Council; Stompin Youth - cinema and as a key component of the New York Film Academy. Sue the Arts; Australian Dance Theatre - Quincey - NSW Ministry for the Company - Australia Council, Arts Australia Council, Arts Tasmania; installation, performance and Healey’s short film, Niche, was Arts SA, Australia Council for the Arts, Australia Council; Clare Dyson Victoria; Fiona Malone - Arts SA, Sue Healey and Company - NSW interactive new media. Highly Commended at ReelDance Arts; BalletLab - Australia Council, - Arts ACT; Expressions Dance Australia Council; Helen Omand - Ministry of the Arts, Australia 2002 and was a finalist at the Arts Victoria, City of Yarra; Bangarra Company - Arts Queensland, Arts SA, Adelaide City Council; One Council; Sydney Dance Company - Australian dance film and video has prestigous 2002 IMZ Dance Screen Dance Theatre - Australia Council, Australia Council; The Fondue Set - Extra Company - NSW Ministry for Australia Council, NSW Ministry for raised its profile locally but also Awards in Monaco. She has just NSW Ministry for the Arts; Ministry for the Arts, Australia the Arts, Australia Council; Paul the Arts; TasDance - Arts Tasmania; overseas with films screening in completed her latest film, Fine Line, Bonemap - Arts Queensland, Council; Paul Gazzola/id339 - Arts O’Sullivan - ArtsWA; Trevor Patrick - Tracks Dance Collective - Australia Berlin, Riccione (Italy), Naples, which is premiering at the 2003 Australia Council; Buzz Dance WA; Force Majeure - Australia Australia Council, Arts Victoria; Sue Council, Arts NT; Yumi Umiumare - Brighton (UK), Barcelona, Melbourne Festival. Narelle Theatre - ArtsWA, Australia Council; Council; Gravity Feed - Australia Peacock - Australia Council, Arts Australia Council; Gerard Van Dyck Thessaloniki (Greece), Amsterdam, Benjamin’s Arachne was Runner-Up Fiona Cameron - City of Melbourne; Council, NSW Ministry for the Arts; WA; Queensland Ballet - Arts - Australia Council; Nalina Wait - Krakow, San Francisco, New York, at ReelDance 2002 and she has just Chapel of Change - City of Yarra, Helen Herbertson - Australia Queensland, Australia Council; Australia Council; Dean Walsh - Manchester and Anchorage (Alaska). curator/director of ReelDance I was the Chunky Move company, Chunky completed On a Wing and a Prayer. City of Melbourne; Chunky Move - Council, Arts Victoria; Igneous - Restless Dance Company - NSW Ministry for the Arts; Walton Given the geographic distance commissioned by Robyn Archer, Move: Just Add Water, was Arts Victoria, Australia Council; Arts Queensland, Australia-India Australia Council, South Australian et al - Australia Council, Arts between Australia and the rest of the artistic director of the Melbourne followed by beautiful close-up This is part of a broader shift within Company in Space - Australia Council; Kage Physical Theatre - Youth Arts Board, Arts SA; SHOTT Victoria; Ros Warby - Australia world, dance film and video enable International Festival of Arts 2003, footage of dancer Nicole Johnston Australian dance toward utilising Council, Multimedia Victoria, Arts Australia Council, City of Dance Theatre - Arts WA; Delia Council, Arts Victoria, City of the vision of choreographers to travel to create a film program, Body on for the company’s interactive screen practices. Artistically, Victoria; Rosalind Crisp - Australia Melbourne, Arts Victoria; Shelley Silvan - Australia Council; skadada Melbourne; West Australian Ballet - in new ways. Screen, an indication of the installation, Closer. choreographers have taken to Council, NSW Ministry for the Arts; Lasica - Arts Victoria, Australia - Australia Council; softcore inc ArtsWA, Australia Council. broadening interest in an exploring the new space-time Explorations of contemporary interdisciplinary art form as old as Choreographer-filmmakers who dimensions and kinetic possibilities choreographers collaborating with cinema itself. have been developing their craft for afforded by the moving image, an film and video artists emerged in some time include Tracie Mitchell, exploration that extends to the 1970s and 80s with works by Australian filmmakers Margie Richard Allen, Karen Pearlman, Paul integration of projection into live Photography credits Margaret Barr and Graeme Watson Medlin, Michelle Mahrer, Samuel Gazzola and Jude Walton. Mitchell’s performance. Tracie Mitchell’s Page Work Photographer among others. The Australian James, Louise Curham, Sean work, including her acclaimed short critically acclaimed live work, Under Broadcasting Corporation produced O’Brien and Cordelia Beresford Sure, have done well here and the Weather, combined 4 Bridge Song. Russell Milledge 19 MissXL Heidrun Löhr two series for television in the have been collaborating with a overseas and she has just performance and film. 4 Inhabited Rachelle Roberts 19 Virtually Richard3 Aaron Tait 1990s, Seven Deadly Sins and broad range of choreographers. completed her latest film, Solo. Choreographers Russell Dumas, 5 The Age of Unbeauty Heidrun Löhr 20 Double Thrill: Elegy Nick Tate Microdance, with many of the Medlin’s films with Sandra Parker’s Allen’s film featuring Bernadette John Utans, Wendy McPhee, 6 The Fondue Set Suzanne Brown 20 The morning after... Ashley de Prazer artists involved since continuing Dance Works–In the Heart of the Walong, No Surrender, has been Sandra Parker, Trevor Patrick, Ros 6 Back to Bach David Kelly 20 Amphibitos Janet Williams their investigations. Directors such Eye (Winner, ReelDance Award screened at many festivals and won Warby, Sue Healey, Tess de 7 Melt Virginia Cummins 21 Fine Line Terrain Alejandro Rolandi/Sue Healey as Stephen Cummins and Mahalya 2000) and In Absentia–have a Best Experimental Film at the 2002 Quincey, Michael Whaites and Kate 8 How could you ever... Koichiro Takagi 21 Night Vision (video still) courtesy of Delia Silvan Middlemist created distinctive continuity of style that is elegant ATOM Awards in Australia. Champion are among the many 8 Tokyo DasSHOKU Girl Brad Hick 22 History Situation Rohan Young experimental works. Most recently, and intensely cinematic. Mahrer has Pearlman’s most recent film, Down artists engaging in this hybrid 9 Tense Dave Virginia Cummins 22 Electronic Big Top Susan Porrett/Katie Lavers a major commission came from the created documentaries for both Time Jaz, combines animation, a practice. Innovative explorations 10 Sentimental Reason Jon Green 23 Ellipse Branco Gaica ABC for a longer-form work, Wet, Bangarra Dance Theatre and fantasy narrative and dance into the relationship between the 10 Janganpa Steve Strike 24 Starry Eyed David Wilson choreographed by Gideon Chunky Move and her most recent sequences. Paul Gazzola’s short, live and screened body extend to 10 Rara Avis Heidrun Löhr 24 The Obcell Kate Callas Obarzanek and directed by film, Dances of Ecstasy, looks at R.U.N., is a low-fi motion study and new media performances and 11 tread Heidrun Löhr 25 Up Front and Naked Gus Kemp Stephen Burstow. trance dancing around the globe. Jude Walton’s Paralla–X is a pristine installations from Company in 11 Same, same But Different Heidrun Löhr 25 Swift Kristy Edmunds James has worked with Martin del analysis of dancer Ros Warby Space and Chunky Move in 12 Amplification Jeff Busby 25 Fair Game Paul Scambler Australian dance screen festivals Amo and Julie-Anne Long to create performing a sequence seen from Melbourne, transmute collective in 12 Intimate drowning ‘pling 26 Shopping fashion... Nick Higgins have been developing along with simple and engrossing motion below, close to her moving body, Brisbane, and Cazerine Barry, Sarah 12 Oysterland Chris Gleisner 26 Tempting Fate Ashley de Prazer dance film and video and stimulate studies. Curham has a long- and from above. Neville and Fiona Malone in Adelaide. 13 Bush (top left) Greg Barrett 26 No Hope No Reason Warwick Page activity in the field. Dancehouse in standing collaboration with Sue Animators, programmers and sound 13 Bush (bottom & right) Danielle Lyonne 27 Fugu San (video still) David Granato Melbourne ran Dance Lumiere from Healey and her latest work with More recently a new wave of designers join filmmakers and 14 CO3 (video still) Gesa Rinderman 27 Cinnabar Field Jeff Busby the mid-nineties to 1999 and Michelle Heaven, Transparent, is a choreographers has turned their choreographers in collaborating on 14 Nowhere Man Rachelle Roberts 28 SYNC Mark Webster Bodyworks on Screen in 2000. delicate Super-8 series. O’Brien has hand to filmmaking. Rosetta Cook, the growing and richly creative 15 Flesh Memo Heidrun Löhr 28 Edge Test Ashley de Prazer ReelDance International Dance on made an award-winning, exquisite Shaun Parker, Sue Healey, Louise screen dance phenomenon. 15 Morphia Series Rachelle Roberts 28 Fracture Jon Green Screen Festival and Awards, black-and-white short film with Taube, Dianne Reid and Narelle 16 Body in Question Suzon Fuks 29 Scorched: Munaldjali Jon Green produced by One Extra in Sydney, dancers Yumi Umiumare and Tony Benjamin are all shifting their Erin Brannigan 16 Murray-Anderson Road Rachelle Roberts 29 sole (video still) Andrew Wholley had its first season in 2000 and in Yap and is currently making a creative focus to the screen. 16 Savage Burn Bernadette Walong 29 The Collapsible Man Nat Cursio 2002 opened at The Studio, documentary on Asian-Australian Rosetta Cook’s first film, Frocks Off, Erin Brannigan is a journalist and 17 Host Heidrun Löhr 30 Quick Brown Fox Alex Makeyev Sydney Opera House followed by a cross-cultural dance artists. was popular during the ReelDance curator/director of ReelDance 17 Bird Talk #1 - 7. Dieter Hartwig 31 Private Dancer Carla Thackrah national tour. It is hoped that it will Beresford has worked with Narelle tour and she won a commission to International Dance on Screen 18 Tearoom Rainsford 33 Bella Figura Jeff Busby continue biennially. As the Benjamin and her documentary for make a new film, The Red Dress, for Festival. 18 Nerve 9 Russell Emerson 34 NO (film still) Shaun Parker A guide to Australian contemporary dance
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