The Farm’s Cockfight Meat Market, North Melbourne 24-26 March 3 ½ stars Intergenerational tensions and masculine insecurities are explored with dramatic physicality in Cockfight, a dance theatre piece created by Gold Coast company The Farm in association with NORPA and Performing Lines. Set in a mundane office, the work sees Gavin Webber (co-director) and Joshua Thomson (co-director/set …
Read MoreDANCE DIVERCITY ★★★ Mariaa Randall Arts House, North Melbourne Until March 26 Before the performance of Divercity begins, choreographer Mariaa Randall invites audience members who identify as women onto the stage. There, we learn different Aboriginal words that translate as “girl” or “woman”. The context is clearly laid out through this simple sharing of language: Divercity explores the story of women and …
Read MoreArtsHub’s series of snapshot reviews of work presented as part of Dance Massive. Like any arts festival, Melbourne’s contemporary dance festival Dance Massive is best explored by diving in headfirst. Seeing an array of works gives greater perspective on the program, and keener awareness of the choreographic trends and concerns on show. The main drawback …
Read MoreTINY SLOPES Meat Market Until March 25 ★★★ From left: Francesca Meale , Melissa Jones (pink leggings), Alice Dixon and Caroline Meaden in Tiny Slopes. Photo: Bryony Jackson The four dancers stand centre stage, reeling off a list of things they can’t do. Alice Dixon can’t operate a circular saw. Caroline Meaden hasn’t studied ikebana. Francesca Meale …
Read MoreAaron Lim and Erak Mith in Between Tiny Cities, photos by Bryony Jackson Breakdancing is often a solo display but in Between Tiny Cities choreographer Nick Power turns it into a two-hander between Darwin boy Aaron Lim and Erak Mith from Phenom Penh. It’s peppered with a distinctly break dancing vocabulary. But more significantly, it is a …
Read MoreOf the four Dance Massive shows I saw this past week, three were duets. And all three of those duets were contained within very strict spatial parameters. Nick Power’s Between Tiny Cities happened within a circle of audience members. ( Full review in previous blog post.) Seeing Creature by Jozsef Trefeli and Gabor Varga and …
Read MoreDANCE MASSIVE STELLAR PROJECT ★★★ Prue Lang Dancehouse, Carlton North Until March 21 Imagine creating a dance about the universe. Do you begin with science – complex mathematical equations and theories – or with philosophy, art, the human body – or even, perhaps, the daily horoscopes – for guidance? Benjamin Hancock and Amber McCartney. Photo: Gregory Lorenzutti Prue Lang’s new …
Read MoreNicola Gunn’s spiralling, discursive and rampantly funny one-woman show is a moral conundrum. Out running in the Belgian town of Ghent, she sees a non-European man — a refugee, she imagines, though he speaks the local language and she does not — skipping stones with his sons. But it turns out that he’s throwing stones. …
Read MoreA wonderfully engaging, theatrical piece by Jozsef Trefeli and Gabor Varga, Creature is a work about origins, tackling ethnographic material in a way that places the contemporary dance practice under the microscope. Using traditional Hungarian dance and song, this short, sharp 40 minute dance presentation is an unmissable performance at the Carlton Baths. One born in Australia, …
Read MoreSmall Details is a testament to Sandra Parker’s work and practice in minimal movement and gestural action. Theatre People were lucky enough to be invited to the dress rehearsal of this slick, in sync show this week, and examine the intricately refined choreography. The show centres around a machinery, industrial and mechanical feel, with the set …
Read MoreFor many, contemporary dance is a strange beast. It’s not quite as simple as ‘either you get it or you don’t.’ But there is often an undeniable weirdness to it, a sense that there is an inner language from another world, and that you are only just scratching at the edges. Such was the case …
Read MoreOn entering the space a great sense of anticipation is built for Vanishing Point, as you enter the sparse Meat Market space in the dark. Dimly light, mostly with the eerie green of exit signs and a few choice white spotlights, the space feels big, empty, eerie to the point of haunted. The ushers bear torches, …
Read MoreMelbourne’s Chunky Move is one of Australia’s most highly – respected, contemporary dance companies. For more than twenty years, the award – winning team located in Southbank’s theatre precinct, has long established a reputation for creating pieces that are thought – provoking, game – changing and convention – pushing. Since forming back in 1995, the …
Read MoreDANCE SPLIT ★★★★½ Lucy Guerin Inc. Arts House, North Melbourne Until March 26 A work like choreographer Lucy Guerin’s Split is open enough to be read in many ways. Melanie Lane (front) and Lilian Steiner (background). Photo: Gregory Lorenzutti There are the structures, laid out clearly and simply: comprised of four chapters, each takes half the length of time as the …
Read MoreChunky Move’s latest work is inspired by ‘clouds’ – but don’t expect something pretty or languid. In fact its robust set design and choreography actively push back against the idea of the ‘romantic ethereal’ that we usually associate with this atmospheric phenomenon. The concept comes from visual artist Ho Tzu Nyen, whose practice has explored …
Read MoreAeon Lz Dunn’s meditative work for Dance Massive takes audiences on a primeval journey in the heart of the city March 20, 2017 Photo: Timothy Meinbert, via Unsplash I have to preface this review by outlining what I will and won’t cover. Part of Aeon‘s specialness is the unexpected, the unsaid and the unpredictable, so I can’t …
Read MoreMarch 16, 2017 Amelia Wills 324 Views 0 Comment Tangi Wai, The Cry of Water, Victoria Hunt Tangi Wai… The Cry of Water starts with a single torch light, at eye level, shone in to the audience. The circle of white light draws attention and blinds your eyes. It is too dark to see anything else, including the dancer who is holding …
Read MoreBy Lz Dunn. Presented by Arts House as part of Dance Massive. 17 – 19 March, 2017 Conceptualised and lead by Lz Dunn in collaboration with sound artist Lawrence English, choreographer Shian Law and dramaturg Lara Thoms, over an 18-month period the team worked across Australia, engaging local artists as co-performers. Dance Massive 2017 brought …
Read MoreMelanie Lane and Lilian Steiner Mar 17th 2017 As the lights dim, UK composer Scanner’s musical score fades in, like a pulsing heartbeat or the distant throb of techno while you’re trying to get some sleep in your tent – with earplugs inserted – at 5am at a festival. Dancers Melanie Lane (wearing a flowing …
Read MoreTwo dancers: one nude, one clothed. A neutral performance space, demarcated by white tape and black tarp. A soundscape: pulsing, throbbing, rising and falling. Providing a backbone to the movement, delineating the passage of time, threaded through the whole yet strangely removed as well. Disembodied, somehow. The framework: a splitting of time and of space. …
Read MoreArtsHub’s series of snapshot reviews of work presented as part of Dance Massive. Dancers Erak Mith & Aaron Lim in Between Tiny Cities រវាងទីក្រុងតូច; photo by Bryony Jackson. Like any arts festival, Melbourne’s contemporary dance festival Dance Massive is best explored by diving in headfirst. Seeing an array of works gives greater perspective on the program, …
Read MoreHerald Sun, Melbourne by Wendy Tuohy 14 Mar 2017 Arts & Entertainment – page 43 CAPTURING the influence of clouds and how they heighten our earthbound existence is a grand aspiration, but bringing tricky concepts alive on stage is bread and butter for Chunky Move. In its latest project the little Melbourne dance company, hailed as …
Read MoreThe Weekly Review – Bayside, Melbourne 15 Mar 2017 General News – page 19 t’s never easy moving ahead of the pack. As director of one of Australia’s most cutting-edge festivals, Angharad Wynne-Jones admits she sometimes has a hard sell. “Dance is not necessarily something that people naturally gravitate towards as a night of entertainment,” …
Read MoreAge, Melbourne by Andrew Fuhrmann 17 Mar 2017 Arts & Entertainment – page 25 DANCE BETWEEN TINY CITIES Arts House, North Melbourne. Until March 18 Reviewed by Andrew Fuhrmann. A cypher is formed when b-boys and b-girls gather in a circle to show off their best breaking and hip-hop dance moves, playing off each another and …
Read MoreImage: Gregory Lorenzutti Mar 16th 2017 | Maxim Boon The title of choreographer Jo Lloyd and performer Nicola Gunn’s Piece For Person & Ghetto Blaster could hardly be more appropriate, and not just because this show does exactly what it says on the tin. Much like its content, the deceptively utilitarian name of this production belies the …
Read MoreAs part of the Dance Massive festival which opens this week, Theatre People spoke to Anouk van Dijk about her collaborative new show ANTI-GRAVITY, working with Ho Tu Nyen, the movement Countertechnique she has been developing, and the Dance Massive festival experience. “Within ANTI—GRAVITY, we go from representations of clouds through dance and visual design to …
Read MoreIt begins with a man, a woman and a duck. With stones being thrown. “I was just yelling abuse at a complete stranger,” the woman admits. “I was amplifying a situation of violence with more violence.” For the woman in question, Melbourne-based performance maker Nicola Gunn (famed for wordy self-deprecating works like At The Sans Hotel and Hello …
Read MoreDANCE MASSIVE BODIED ASSEMBLIES ★★★ Dancehouse Until March 17 Almost as though they are at a rave surrounded by crowds, the dancers keep dancing in the dark and in silence. Ivey Wawn dances in the dark. Photo: Gregory Lorenzutti There is more to this movement than just a few gestures or carefully disciplined steps; rather, exuberant dancing …
Read MoreNat Cursio was 41 when she tried skateboarding for the first time. “We bought a skateboard for my child, who was five, and I said, ‘Skateboarding looks like it feels so good, I want to do that too,’” she says. Skater tween Pixel Willison-Allen on a roll for choreographer Nat Cursio’s Tiny Slopes. Photo: Simon Schluter She …
Read MoreSummary Learning to skateboard at the age of 40 inspired choreographer Natalie Cursio’s new dance production Tiny Slopes. For the full interview, head to RN: https://radio.abc.net.au/programitem/pgYOG2edA7
Read MoreWhen it comes to creative collaborations, choreographer and Artistic Director of Chunky Move, Anouk van Dijk, knows a thing or two. Maxim Boon finds the silver lining in her latest collaborative work, Anti-Gravity. For Chunky Move artistic director Anouk van Dijk, the act of choreographing isn’t merely a matter of inventing steps and crafting gestures. It’s about sculpting the …
Read MoreChoreographer Lucy Guerin is one of Australia’s most accomplished dance makers, but for her latest work, she’s resetting the career clock. Maxim Boon enters the binary state of her new duet. Since founding her company 15 years ago, choreographer Lucy Guerin is today one of Australia’s most established and respected dance makers. But she is …
Read MoreCuriosity, clouds, release Andrew Fuhrmann: interview: Ho Tzu Nyen, Anouk van Dijk, ANTI—GRAVITY It’s like being inside a cloud. The air of the rehearsal room is thick with stage fog, shot through with flickering beams of yellowish light. Choreographer Anouk van Dijk and multimedia artist Ho Tzu Nyen stand near the door, peering into the …
Read MoreSome of the country’s foremost choreographers are set to feature in the 2017 Dance Massive program, including 12 world premieres across 20 productions. e program will run across ten days providing cutting edge dance from the likes of Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin Inc and more. Elsewhere, 32 of Australia’s best dancers will battle it out …
Read MoreGrowing older doesn’t have to mean abandoning a career but when your body is your instrument, it does require adjustment. Nat Cursio Co’s Tiny Slopes. Image: Gregory Lorenzutti. Dancer and choreographer Nat Cursio jokes that, because she was an artist, she went down a slightly different route when she had a mid-life crisis. Rather than splashing …
Read MorePhotograph: Zan Wimberley Nicola Gunn – ‘Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster’ Melbourne’s annual festival of dance runs the gamut of major local choreographers and companies to emerging talent, with most of the works premieres. The shows are mostly about an hour in length, and take place at once of four venues: Meat Market, …
Read MoreGrowing up in Singapore, video artist Ho Tzu Nyen had no reason to be interested in the weather. The forecast was predictable: a monotony of hot, humid days, and incessant downpours during the rainy season. His future obsession with clouds was not on the horizon. “I never ever looked at the weather forecast until I …
Read MoreFrom a residency at sea to a dance-off between street dancers, 20 productions question what dance is. In January this year, award-winning choreographer and dancer James Batchelor embarked on a two-month residency on board Australia’s state-of-the art marine research vessel the Investigator. The resulting work, Deepspace, which plays at the intersection of arts and science, will …
Read More