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Ocho by Rafael Bonachela Summer by Rafael Bonachela (World Premiere) New work by Stephanie Lake (World Premiere) Subscribe and save 15% #2022SDCsydneydancecompany.com Resound 28 October – 5 November Roslyn Packer Theatre Walsh Bay
3#2022SDC SYDNEY DANCE COMPANY IS BASED IN WALSH BAY SYDNEY. OUR STUDIOS ARE SITUATED ON THE LANDS AND OVER THE WATERS OF THE GADIGAL PEOPLE OF THE EORA NATION. SYDNEY DANCE COMPANY ACKNOWLEDGES THE TRADITIONAL CUSTODIANS OF THESE LANDS AND WATERS ON WHICH WE PERFORM. WE PAY OUR RESPECTS TO THEIR ELDERS AND CULTURAL CUSTODIANS AND ALL FIRST NATIONS PEOPLE.
We are thrilled to premiere INDance, our new inaugural program that connects independent contemporary dancemakers to Sydney audiences. INDance was created with the vision to connect independent artists with audiences in our new studio space, the Neilson Studio. This new studio is incredible as it is an in-house performance space that allows us to realise our commitment to promoting and supporting Australian artists and their collaborators.
Over two nights each week you will join us in traversing different performative styles, moods and themes, through four diverse and innovative Indance works.weekone, Siren Dance created and performed by Lilian Steiner is an exploration of illusion and the power of magnetism, both of which are subject to the slipperiness of truth. Followed by Castillo, a new solo work by Prue Lang for and with performer Jana Castillo, exploring the taxonomy of touch through the lens of choreography
Inand neurodivergence.weektwo, Julia, performed and created by Natalie Allen alongside co-creator Sally Richardson, is a response to Julia Gillard’s legacy and the experience of sexism and misogyny directed towards women in Australia. Followed by Explicit Contents, by Rhiannon Newton which explores how our bodies are a site of visceral connection to the world around us. We thank City of Sydney for their visionary investment in this initiative, fostering the development and maintenance of a flourishing landscape for independent dance in Sydney. Lou Oppenheim Rafael Bonachela Executive Director Artistic Director
WELCOME TO INDANCE
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To have INDance, a dedicated program that supports independent Australian artists and their collaborators, in our broader programming is exciting as it represents our joint commitment to support Australian dancemakers and the works they produce. We cannot wait to see what this unique opportunity for the independent sector creates, and to witness innovative works created in the years to come. This season of INDance was curated by Rafael and an independent panel, and we would like to thank them for their support in this process. This short and exciting season will explore diverse, abstract, and innovative concepts that push the boundaries of dance and reflect the contemporary Australian landscape. Developed for its breadth of creative expression by the rich choreographic voices of Lilian Steiner, Prue Lang, Natalie Allen, Rhiannon Newton and their incredible teams of collaborators.
WEEK ONE • PAGE 7 SIREN DANCE • PAGE 8–11 CASTILLO • PAGE 12–17 GIRARU GALING GANHAGIRRI BY JOEL BRAY • PAGE 18–19 WEEK 2 • PAGE 21 JULIA • PAGE 22–27 EXPLICIT CONTENTS • PAGE 28–32 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS • PAGE 32 5CONTENTS#2022SDC
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WEEK ONE FRIDAY 19 & SATURDAY 20 AUGUST 6.30PM - SIREN DANCE BY LILIAN STEINER 8.15PM - CASTILLO BY PRUE LANG 7#2022SDC
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While making Siren Dance, I thought about what it means to work as a dancer. The lifetime spent accumulating and refining physical and performative languages, in order to be able to offer audiences something unique and hopefully captivating to watch. In some ways it feels like a particular kind of generosity for one to offer themselves up for observation, but on the other hand, as part of this process, sits a desire and demand to be given attention. This brought me to consider what it might mean to remove the notion of Ego from performing/being a performer, and that brought me to consider Dance as its own entity. Something separate from the Dancer. Something powerful of and for itself. Something with its own liveliness and sense of body, its own gravity/gravitas.
SIREN DANCE
Concept, Choreography Lilian Steiner & Composition:Performance Marco Cher-Gibard feat. Aarti Jadu Costume Design Geoffrey Watson Lighting Design Giovanna Yate Gonzalez Text Milan Kundera, The LightnessUnbearableofBeing
Siren Dance premiered at Dancehouse from 24-27 March 2022. Development and this presentation was supported by Dancehouse, The Besen Family Foundation and Lucy Guerin Inc. An initial, short iteration of Siren Dance was supported through presentations at B.Motion Danza(Bassano del Grappa, Italy) and Deltebre Dansa (Deltebre, Spain) in 2019.
...and so, thinking about Dance and Siren Dance, and my position as a dancer, I recently wrote down these thoughts: Like a type of alien that we see in science fiction films and television shows, Dance wears Danceus.wears dancers. It steps inside our skins and drives us to move. Dance has its own sense of purpose, its own kinds of logic, but it must work with the bodies that it acquires. I don’t use this word ‘acquires’ Danceflippantly.does acquire us. Once Dance has entered us, we are forever Dancechanged.is vast. It has many personas, many languages, many modes. It shapeshifts, and with it, so do we, its dancing bodies. So, Siren Dance is about many things - As I mentioned in the show synopsis, it’s about the slipperiness of truth, and the power of magnetism and desire, but it is also about Dance and it’s own gravitas, about the many dancers and lineages that are part of my own dancing body and the many skins or personas I have created and/ or stepped into in my lifetime so far (as both a performer and a human in my daily life). Every skin allows and reveals different aspects, and through making Siren Dance it has been a joy to remember the spectrum of human experience and character.
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SIREN DANCE LILIAN STEINER
Choreographer & Performer Lilian Steiner is a Narrm/Melbourne-based dancer and choreographer, whose practice champions the deep intelligence of the body in movement and its unique ability to reveal and comment on the complexities of contemporary humanity.
Lilian’s work has been presented within Australia (Dancehouse Melbourne, Chunky Move’s Activators commissioning program, Sydney Dance Company’s New Breed program, Dance Massive, the Keir Choreographic Award, Next Wave Festival, Melbourne Now (National Gallery Victoria), FAUX MO at MONA FOMA (Hobart), Melbourne Fringe Festival and Lucy Guerin Inc.’s Pieces for Small Spaces), and internationally (Rencontres Chorégraphiques, Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis (Paris), B.Motion Danza (Bassano del Grappa), Deltebre Dansa (Deltebre), Les Plateaux de la Briqueterie (Paris), Fête de la Musique (Geneva), Festival Constellations (Toulon), Sounds and Visions Festival (Barbican Centre, London) & Hong Kong International Choreography Festival (Hong Kong).
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Her first full-length work Noise Quartet Meditation (2014) received a Green Room Award for ‘Concept and Realisation’. Lilian is a long-term performer-collaborator with Melbourne-based company Lucy Guerin Inc. and has worked repeatedly with choreographers Phillip Adams, Shelley Lasica and Melanie Lane amongst others. She frequently collaborates with artists working with sculpture, film and experimental sound performance. Lilian received the Green Room Award for Best Female Dancer in both 2017 and 2018, as well as the Helpmann Award in www.liliansteiner.com2017.
DISTRACTION: Tim Collins is a Piece of Shit (Counihan Gallery, 2017), and Rachael Wisby (Newport Substation, 2019). Geoffrey’s costume and set design has appeared in works by Lilian Steiner, Brooke Stamp, Holly Durant, Leah Landau and BalletLab, and have been showcased in Melbourne Fashion Week and Virgin Australia Fashion Festival. Geoffrey has worked as a performer with companies and artists including Phillip Adams, Lucy Guerin Inc., Nana Biluš-Abaffy, Alisdair Macindoe, Lilian Steiner Natalie Abbott, Lee Serle, Alisdair Macindoe, Gekidan Kaitaisha and The Australian Ballet.
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Marco Cher-Gibard (b. Auckland, 1983), is an artist working with sound to explore contemporary culture, expression and experience. He is part of the Chinese diaspora via Singapore, Thailand and New Zealand. He is a constant collaborator who works through sound in a variety of contexts including performance, installation, workshops and composition. Marco’s award winning theatrical compositions and sound designs have been presented both locally at Dance Massive, Arts House Seasons, New Breed (Sydney Dance Company) and internationally by organisations such as London International Festival of Theatre (UK), Vienna Festwochen (Austria), Holland Festival (Holland), Theatre der Welt (Germany) and Melbourne International Arts Festival (Australia), amongst others.
SIREN COLLABORATORSDANCE
MARCO CHER-GIBARD (Composer)
GEOFFREY WATSON (Costume) Geoffrey Watson is a Melbourne-based artist, whose work is rooted in choreography and has branches in but has branches in costume/set design, fashion, sculpture and distraction tactics. Geoffrey’s performance works include Camel (Next Wave Festival 2016), Loving You Ad Nauseam (Melbourne Fringe Festival, 2016) DISTRACTION: Smackdown! (Melbourne Fashion Festival, 2017),
GIOVANNA YATE GONZALEZ (Lighting) Giovanna Yate Gonzalez is an emerging lighting designer and multidisciplinary professional from Colombia, with a rich background as a dancer and teacher with over 10 years of experience in the performing arts industry. As a dancer, she had been a choreographic assistant and performer in the Colombian dance companies Concept Anvar and Dinamov Danza (2014-2017). These companies participated in several national festivals in different cities such as Bogotá, Cali and Tocancipá, in addition to international festivals in Sao Paulo-Brazil, Mazatlán-Mexico and San José-Costa Rica. She has expanded her skill set and knowledge in Australia through the Production Bachelor at VCA in Lighting Design. Previous works include the lighting design for the interdisciplinary dance project “Ten Degrees”, MMA, and the Musical “Sweet Charity” at Space 28 VCA 2021, theatre performances such as “Nora: A Doll’s House” at the Union House Theatre in April 2022 and “Fast Food” at Red Stitch in June 2022, dance performances “Passing” by Isabelle Beauverd and “Siren Dance” by Lilian Steiner at DanceHouse March 2022. Also, she had a collaborative lighting installation, “Talk to Me”, with musician Monica Lim at the Bundoora Homestead Art Centre.
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CASTILLO premiered Internationally at Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis (Paris, France) June 2022 supported by The Australia Council for the Arts and Rencontres Chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis.
From the Choreographer: My practise is deeply invested in the sensorial nature of the body (the cellular, energetic, textural specificities of physicality) informed by my training in Release, Alexander technique, Klein, Martial arts, Tai chi, Butoh, Budo, Hip-hop, Ballet and 25+ years of Improvisation methodologies. I draw from the Octopus, Plants, Biology, Biomimicry, Philosophy and Feminism to feed my ever-evolving choreographic practise. I have been deeply exploring the taxonomy of touch, and more recently further honed this tactile relationship using a material called Theraputty. CASTILLO further investigates the taxonomy of touch and texture through the lens of choreography Itand neurodiversity.iscreatedwithand
for award-winning performer Jana Castillo whose physical intelligence and neurodiversity I find extraordinary and highly inspiring. With each new project I cultivate the ‘synergy’ between the conceptual/dramaturgical framework and the choreographic/kinaesthetic investigation. Consequently, CASTILLO is danced and described via Pointe Shoes, Socks & Sneakers, exploring friction and texture to generate diverse and nuanced choreographic modalities. Each choreographic investigation is contextualised by a film, giving the spectator further insight into the complex craft of dance making and embodiment. The film and live elements are interwoven to a score by renowned composer Chiara Costanza. I have aspired to shape a visual-musical journey, both poetic and virtuosic, that celebrates physical intelligence and difference while offering new perceptions of the dancing body.
Producer Alison Halit With special thanks to Josh Wright, Lauren Castillo and Sinead McDevitt for your invaluable support of this project. CASTILLO premiered at Dancehouse Melbourne in March 2022. Creation and presentation was supported by Dancehouse, The Australia Council for the Arts, Creative Victoria, Besen Family Foundation, Supercell Festival of Contemporary Dance through the Makers program, Chunky Move and Lucy Guerin Inc.
Concept and direction Prue Lang Choreography Prue Lang and Jana Castillo Performer Jana Castillo Lighting design Lisa Mibus Video Prue TakeshiPippaLang,Samaya,Kondo, Freed, Mathieuandroids:Briand
The New South Wales premiere of CASTILLO is presented and supported by Sydney Dance Company and City of Sydney.
CASTILLO
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Concept, Direction & Choreographer Prue Lang is an Australian choreographer returned to Melbourne after 17 years living and working in the European dance field. Her practice focuses on rigorous choreographic innovation, conceptually driven aesthetics, cross-disciplinary collaborations, and choreography in the expanded field. Her mode of artistic production is underlined by her feminist and environmental values. After graduating from VCA in Melbourne, Prue joined Meryl Tankard’s Australian Dance Theatre touring internationally. In 1996 she moved to France to work with the Choreographic National Centre in Angers (Bouvier/Obadia), Compagnie Cre-Ange in Paris, as well as creating and facilitating her own independent projects and improvisation events. In 1999 she began an important collaboration with William Forsythe as a leading soloist and choreographer of the Frankfurt Ballett and The Forsythe Company. She created five original works for the company, before establishing herself as an Herindependent choreographer.diverseandextensiverepertoire of choreographic works spans 20 years and has been presented in International festivals, theatres and museums throughout the world including Theatre National de Chaillot (Paris), Festival Faits d’hiver(Paris) Rencontres choregraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis (Saint-Denis), Maison Rouge ( Paris), Mains d’oeuvres ( Saint-Ouen) Tanzplattform Deutschland (Germany), HAU (Berlin), Mousonturm (Frankfurt), Tanzhaus NRW (Düsseldorf), STUK (Belgium), Les halles de Schaerbeek (Brussels), Transart (Italy), Kalamata Festival ( Greece) REDCAT (Los Angeles) TATE Modern (London), NGV Triennial, Carriageworks, Adelaide festival, Dancehouse and Dance Massive Awards(Australia).include: Most Outstanding Dancer, Most Innovative Production and Most Outstanding Choreographer by Europe’s Tanz’s Annual Critics’ Survey, PRIX ARS ELECTRONICA award for Hybrid Art, Green Room Awards for Best Choreography and Best Design.
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PRUECASTILLOLANG
Jana worked with leading artists across dance, theatre and opera, toured internationally with Shaun Parker and Company, Force Majeure, Dance Integrated Australia, Opera Australia, Nimby Opera, Projections Dance Company, Okareka, Borderline Arts Ensemble NZ and Dance Makers Collective. In 2017, Jana collaborated with Meryl Tankard starring in her film ‘MAD’ and joined Australian Dance Theatre under Garry Stewart’s directorship. While at ADT, she performed both nationally and internationally in a range of works. Jana’s choreographic credits include a graduate season piece for the full-time dance program at The Space in Melbourne; a solo work commissioned for Australian Dance Theatre’s Rough Draft season titled ‘Access’ –inspired by her movement disorder, dystonia. In 2018 Jana was awarded the Australian Dance Award for ‘Outstanding Performance by a SheFemale Dancer’.alsoworked as a motion capture stunt-woman at the worldrenowned Weta Workshop in New Zealand, for feature films ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ and ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’, working closely with film directors Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor. In 2019 Jana was a featured artist in the SBS documentary ‘Perspective Shift’ about Australian artists living with disabilities. In 2019 she began collaborating with Prue Lang on PROJECT F, presented in Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne, Paris and Sydney 2022. Jana is a regular performer with Legs on the wall and currently in development with Omar Backley-Astrachan. She also serves on the established Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group member at SDC (Sydney Dance Company) as a contributing LGBTQ+ artist living and thriving with disability.
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JANACASTILLOCASTILLO
Choreographer & Performer
Jana Castillo completed her schooling at the VCASS, going on to study at the New Zealand School of Dance, graduating in 2009.
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Chiara’s work now ranges across composing and producing music and sound design for film and Television, djing creating electronic music for live performance, composing soundscapes for immersive environments and art installations, and the experimental use of field recordings with analogue and digital synthesis.
COLLABORATORSCASTILLO
Chiara has recently composed the original sound-track for feature film ‘Long Story Short’ (2021). She has also composed the original score for ‘All These Creatures’, winner of the Palme D’Or at the Cannes International Film Festival 2018, as well as for STAN original series ‘The Other Guy’, SBS TV mini-series ‘The Unusual Suspects’ and more recently ABC’s ‘Preppers’. In 2020, Chiara was the recipient of the APRA Mentorship program for Women in Screen Composition with Melbourne composer Bryony Marks. She has collaborated with Prue Lang on TOWARDS INNUMERABLE FUTURES (2018), PROJECT F (2020), CASTILLO chiaracostanza.com(2022).
CHIARA COSTANZA (Composer) Chiara is a music composer, producer and DJ born and raised in Torino, Italy and now based in Australia. Her artistic appreciation and blend of music disciplines allow her to produce an eclectic range of musical Classicallyoutcomes.trainedin piano in Italy and later exposed to electronic music after moving to Melbourne in 2004, Chiara has since moved into a well respected position in the Melbourne Techno movement through her dedication to a refined DJing technique and production of electronic music. This eventually led to extra studies in sound art and design at RMIT University, extending her interests into composition and sound design for screen.
COLLABORATORSCASTILLO
ALISON HALIT (Producer) Alison is a curator who produces inter-cultural projects, co-creations, residencies and tours for leading Australian artists. Within Australia her artists are regularly presented in esteemed venues and festivals including: Melbourne Festival, Asia TOPA Festival, Arts House, Dance Massive, FOLA, Arts Centre Melbourne, Malthouse Theatre, Dancehouse, Dark MoFo Campbelltown Arts Centre, OZ Asia Festival, Adelaide Festival, The Performance Space, Liveworks, PICA, HOTA and Brisbane Powerhouse.
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Internationally her artists have been programmed in festivals and venues including: COIL Festival PS 122, The Chocolate Factory and Abrons Art Centre (all in New York); Theatre de Vanves’ Festival Artdanthe, Parc de la Villette, Recontres Choregraphiques Internationales, Festival d’Automne Paris and La Commune (all in Paris); Le Printemps de septembre, Theatre de la Cite, Theatre Garonne and La Biennale Festival (all in Toulouse); Festival Parallle and Montevideo (Marseille), Aarhus Festival, Noorderzon Festival (Groningen), The National Theatre (London), Dublin Fringe Festival and Project Arts Centre (Dublin), NOA Festival (Vilnius), Culturgest (Lisbon), Teatro Nacional Sao Joan (Porto), BIT Teatergarasjen (Bergen), RAS (Sandnes), The Substation (Singapore), TPAM/ Bank ART (Yokohama), Internationale Tanzmesse (Düsseldorf), Dock 11 (Berlin), Theatre der Welt (Hamburg), TBA Festival P.I.C.A (Portland), Tanzhaus Zurich, Lonely in the Rain (Kuopio), Hiroshima (Barcelona), Tanzquartier (Vienna), Baltic Circle Theatre Festival (Helsinki), December Dance (Bruges), Usine C (Montreal), SPRING Festival (Utrecht), the Venice Biennale, Ming Contemporary Art Museum (Shanghai), Taipei Arts Festival, Bois de l’Aune (Aix en Provence), FAB Festival and Theatre Du Pont Tournant (Bordeaux).
About the artwork The multichannel video installation Giraaru Galing Gaanhagirri 2022 depicts dancer and choreographer Joel Bray gently inhabiting, dancing on and responding to his ancestral PartsWiradjuri Country.ofBray’sbody are superimposed in the film, using chroma key technology, with natural textures including water, grass and rock, suggesting the intimate relationship First Nations people experience between body and Country. As Bray states, ‘It speaks of the diasporic experience; how First Nations people carry the ancestral memory of Country in our bodies, even when we live away’. The way in which he internalises the patterns and movements of nature is also distinctly queer—a body that is porous yet resilient, liminal yet grounded.
Joel’s first work as a choreographer Biladurang won three Melbourne Fringe Awards in 2016. Since then, Joel has created solo and ensemble dance works including Dharawungara, Daddy, Considerable Sexual License and I Liked it BUT…
GIRAARU GALING GAANHAGIRRI BY JOEL BRAY
Joel Bray’s Giraaru Galing Gaanhagirri was created in consultation with Uncle James Ingram and Wagga Wagga Elders, and with the support of City of Melbourne, Sarah Benjamin and Phillip Keir through the Keir Foundation, City of Port Phillip, Create NSW, Blacktown Arts, Arts Centre Melbourne and Yirramboi Festival 2020. About Joel Bray An artist living in Naarm (Melbourne), Joel Bray is a proud Wiradjuri man whose practice springs from his cultural heritage. His works are intimate encounters in unorthodox spaces, in which audience-members are invited in as costorytellers to explore the experiences of fairskinned Aboriginal people, and the experiences of contemporary gay men in an increasingly digital and isolated world. His body becomes the intersection site of those songlines- Indigenous heritage, skin-colour and queer sexuality.
Joel trained at NAISDA and WAAPA before pursuing a career in Europe and Israel with JeanClaude Gallotta, Company CeDeCe , Kolben Dance, Machol Shalem Dance House, Yoram Karmi’s FRESCO Dance Company, Niv Sheinfeld & Oren Laor and Roy Assaf. He returned to Australiamin 2015 to work with CHUNKY MOVE.
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Giraaru galing gaanhagirri is a Wiradjuri expression meaning ‘the wind will bring rain’; it carries with it an understanding of the interconnectedness of nature and its cycles, of its implacable force and the assurance that one thing follows another. The phrase has special meaning for Bray, who will stand outside in storms that have travelled from Wiradjuri Country to Naarm/Melbourne, letting the rain pour over him and connecting with Country.
Theblacktownarts.com.auGroom.projecthasbeenassistedby
At The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre from Friday 9 September – Saturday 8 October 2022, Amala Groom, Joel Bray and Taree Sansbury reflect on the power of water, wind and earth to restore strength and connect with Country.
Amala Groom, Joel Bray and Taree Sansbury
EXHIBITION OF THE FULL WORK
Three First Nation artists are linked by continuous connections to Country through stories and knowledge of resistance and survival.
the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts. Proudly funded by the NSW Government in association with Blacktown City Council and Blacktown Arts. Giraru Galing Ganhagirri was commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/ Canberra for the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony, created in consultation with Uncle James Ingram and Wagga Wagga Elders, and with support from City of Melbourne, Phillip Keir and Sarah Benjamin (the Keir Foundation), City of Port Phillip, Create NSW, Blacktown Arts, Arts Centre Melbourne, and Yirramboi Festival 2020. Water Woman was funded by City of Gold Coast and Arts Queensland through Karul Projects.
The exhibition features three key works; Water Woman Taree Sansbury, Giraru Galing Ganhagirri, Joel Bray and Myths & Legends, Amala
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WEEK TWO FRIDAY 26 & SATURDAY 27 AUGUST 6.30PM - JULIA BY NATALIE ALLEN 8.15PM - EXPLICIT CONTENTS BY RHIANNON NEWTON 21#2022SDC
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Set design Helen Fitzgerald Lighting design Joe Paradise Lui Costume design Nicole Marrington
Creative producer Libby Klysz
JULIA is created in three distinct sections, roughly following a time frame that moves from the past into the present moment. Solo performer Natalie Allen crafts, constructs and embodies a complex portrayal, shaping and framing her reading of Gillard (and of misogyny) through her body, her voice, and her choice of outfit and prop. She reviews, represents, reflects, recognises. She constructs, deconstructs and reconstructs, responding, revolting, and revisioning. She is remembering Gillard, she is every woman, she is herself.
JULIA is dedicated to our mothers and grandmothers, to the generations of women who have courageously advocated and fought for the rights we have today. We are grateful to them for their bravery, resilience and determination, that has given us a chance to speak and to be heard. We are all part of this collective story and we have a role to play and a job to do to raise awareness, to continue to fight for progress and change. Gillard is also the springboard of what is a portrait of Natalie Allen; as dancer and performer, artist, storyteller and woman. It has been gift to collaborate with her and this amazing team of independent artists. A solo work is never a ‘solo’ work, and we thank this outstanding company of artists, designers, producers and technicians who have collectively come together to realise this production. Sally Richardson, co creator.
JULIA
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Created by Natalie Allen and Sally Richardson Director Sally Richardson Performer Natalie Allen Sound design/ Joe Paradise Lui and composition Annika bycomposed/performedFeaturedMosessongRachaelDease
JULIA is created from source material drawn from the parliamentary record, newspaper, radio and related media reportage, social media, and wider public commentary on Australia’s first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. We have taken exact phrases (and quotes) that have been written about her and re-framed this through the body of the performer.
Stage manager Georgia Smith Executive producers Steamworks Arts with Feisty ProductionsDame
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NATALIEJULIAALLEN
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Creator & Performer Natalie Allen is an award-winning dancer with an extensive professional career. She has collaborated and performed work by leading choreographers from Australia & around the world; Rafael Bonachela, Adam Linder, Emanuel Gat, Jacopo Godani, Larrisa McGowan, Alexander Ekman, Gary Stewart, Natalie Weir, Alexander Whitley, Gwyn Emberton, William Forysthe, Samantha Chester & Richard Cilli. Allen has been creating work since 2013 which has been presented locally, nationally & internationally.
Last year, Allen went to Komunitas Salihara, Jakarta, for STRUT Dance International SEED residency. Climacteric a site-specific solo work originally made In Situ 2017, was presented at Contact M1 Festival 2019, Singapore. ‘A Night Out!’ a community show reinventing social dance, created in 2017, toured regional WA in 2019. Allen performed in Maxine Doyle’s ‘Sunset’, Perth Festival 2019 & joined the cast of Punchdrunk’s ‘Sleep No More’ in Shanghai. Recently she choreographed a solo for SLIDE Dance Theatre’s new show ‘Beam Me Up, Kate’ and is choreographing on LINK dance company for their 2020 November season.
COLLABORATORSJULIA
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Sally (Director/co-creator/co-producer)Richardson
Sally is an award-winning writer/director & producer. She has worked for companies & organisations; Black Swan Theatre Company, Perth Theatre Company, Deckchair Theatre, Spare Parts Puppet Theatre, The Flying Fruitfly Circus, Malthouse Theatre, Company Belvoir, NICA, NAISDA, WAAPA, CIRCA & ABC Radio. Productions of her work have been awarded Helpmann, Green Room, Blue Room, Ausdance WA Awards, Dance Australia Critics Choice & been presented at major arts festivals nationally (Sydney, Perth & Melbourne) & internationally including Shanghai International Arts Festival, Beijing Dance Festival & Sao Paolo Festival. She has created works across multiple platforms in Australia & overseas. She is a past recipient of an Australia Council Dramaturgy Fellowship & a Creative Arts Fellowship (DCAWA). She is Artistic Director of Steamworks Arts (since 2000). Dance/theatre works include; the multi award winning The Drover’s Wives, Standing Bird & Standing Bird 2 & GUI SHU (Belong). Sally has collaborated on projects with choreographers; Sue Peacock,Felicity Bott, Rakini Devi, Shannon Bott, Kynan Hughes, Company Loaded, Stefan Karlsson, Danielle Micich,Daisy Sanders, Jodie Farrugia She& others.hasdirected/ produced dance films; The Drover’s Wives,Standing Bird 1 & 2, VAKA & Eliza, Belonging & JHIH exhibiting films nationally & internationally. Recent works inc.; Trigger Warning (PLWA & PICA), FEARLESS & CATCH! for MAXIMA Circus, dance/theatre workFlesh & Bones Micromove & Kiss Club & MEDEA for Black Swan Theatre Company. She developed #thatwomanjulia with Natalie Allen for Strut’s Shortcuts then NEXT for Move Me Festival 2018. Sam (MovementChesterconsultant/rehearsal director) Sam is an award-winning theatre maker, movement director, performer & educator. For 20 Years she has been working with the physical form, as a contemporary dancer, director & choreographer in theatre & dance. She has worked with all the major theatre companies in Sydney including Force Majeure. She was Head of Movement & Associate Director at the Actors Centre Australia 2008-2015 & has taught & directed extensively at NIDA & other performing arts institutions. She was awarded the Mike Walsh fellowship to travel to NY to train with the SITI Company in Viewpoints & Suzuki disciplines & in 2013 she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship traveling to Spain, France, UK & Belgium investigating devising techniques in dance & theatre. She was Associate Artist for Critical Path, NSW’s Choreographic Centre & is the co-founder of Queen Street Studio &founder of independent dance space Ready Made Works. Her recent works include the Astronaut & HIRO: the man who sailed his house for the Blue Room Theatre.
COLLABORATORSJULIA
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Joe (SoundLui design/composition; lighting design) Joe is a founding member of Renegade Productions & creates, writes, directs, designs & composes theatre & performance works. Recent works inc; Unveiling, & Death Throes, presented at the Blue Room Theatre in 2019. Joe is a regular contributing part of the professional& independent theatre industry in Perth as a director, writer, sound & lighting designer. He has worked with most Perth based companies including Black Swan State Theatre Company, Yirra Yaakin, Deckchair Theatre & the vast majority of independent companies. Recent lighting designs inc. Black Swan productions I am My Own Wife & You know We Belong Together, Kynan Hughes Love/Less & NEXT for Move Me Festival. He was director/sound designer for Unsung Heroes for Black Swan STC. Joe has collaborated with Director Sally Richardson on composition & lighting for Standing Bird 2, Mermaid X,Flesh & Bones, #thatwomanjulia, FEARLESS, & CATCH! Helen Fitzgerald (production design) is a set & costume designer & prop stylist working across film,television, performance, advertising & fashion. Helen’s work has been awarded a Fox Studios Award for Excellence in Design, a Gold AWARD Award for Production Design 2019 & a Bronze Cannes Lion 2019.Helen was selected as an emerging production designer for the Berlinale Talent Campus at the Berlin Film Festival & awarded the Alchemy Arts Grant at the Abbotsford Convent Arts Precinct, Victoria. Helen has designed for international music artists such as Sia & local video artists such as Pilar Mata Dupont. She directed & designed performances for New Movement Collective at the Architectural Association’s inter-professional Studio, London, The Lisbon Architecture Triennale & The Matadero Contemporary Arts Centre Madrid. She holds a Master of Arts in Production Design from AFTRS (the Australian Film,Television and Radio School), a Graduate Diploma in Spatial Performance & Design from the Architectural Association in London as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Design (Curtin University)Annika Moses (sound artist/ design) is an emerging sound artist in text-based composition, radio phonicworks, community radio & transmission arts, vocal improvisation, immersive theatre & install
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From the Choreographer: “The edge of the body has disappeared; the environment has seeped inside and come to live amongst body parts; the nervous system feels its way far beyond the skin.”
Explicit Contents was born from my desire to emphasise how bodies are not separate from but inextricably connected to their environments. Throughout the creative process, I kept returning to the sensation of submerging myself in the ocean, to the feeling of the watery mass of my body dissolving amongst the watery mass of the sea. There is something in this thick sensation of connection between the body and the world that feels pertinent, that feels important for how we sense ourselves as deeply involved with the wellbeing of our surroundings. I envision Explicit Contents as a series of sensorial encounters, each amplifying a different material or energetic connection between the body and the world. The work seeks to sensitise audiences to the visceral and sensuous nature of these connections, encouraging them to feel how our bodies interweave us with the more-thanhuman world.
David Huggins, Ivey Wawn Music and Sound Design Peter Lenaerts Lighting Design Karen Norris Costume Design Agnes Choi Producer Katy Green Loughrey
Explicit Contents was commissioned and produced with the support of Campbelltown Arts Centre through Campbelltown City Council and premiered at Sydney Festival 2021. The presentation of Explicit Contents has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. The presentation of Explicit Contents is also supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
Choreographed by Rhiannon Newton
“Burning and cooling, hungering and satiating, incorporating and expelling, the body emerges as a site of action and exchange. The skin, like the theatre, is porous and dotted with entrances and exits. At certain speeds, edges blur and contents merge with their surroundings. One material meets another and pushing up against it realises the force of its own will. Metabolizing, the body heats up, making and burning energy from the inside out. Water, like the contents of the body, seeks a kind of resting place away from here.”
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Performers
Rhiannon has developed her choreographic practice through residencies and commissions throughout Australia, South-East Asia, Europe and North America, such as ARTEFACT (Singapore, 2022); The Unconformity (Tasmania, 2021); The Australia Council HIAP International Residency (Helsinki, 2019); Trois C-L (Luxembourg, 2019), Dancehouse Housemate (Melbourne, 2018); Critical Path Responsive Residency (Sydney, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022) and Movement Research (New York, 2013). Rhiannon also works as a performer and collaborator with artists such as Mette Edvardsen (BE), Martin del Amo, Lee Serle, Ivey Wawn, Amrita Hepi, Rosalind Crisp, Paea Leach, Angela Goh and Brooke Stamp. In 2022 she completed a Master degree at UNSW titled An Embodied Ecological Condition: Dance Practices and the Development of Embodied Ecological Awareness. From 2019-2021 Rhiannon co-directed the artist-led independent dance organisation ReadyMade Works and she continues to co-curate the performance-lecture series Talking Bodies. Rhiannon is a part-time dance lecturer at the Australian College of Physical Education.
Choreographer Rhiannon is an Australian dancer and choreographer who grew up on Dunghutti Land on the Mid-North Coast of NSW. Her creative work draws attention to the interconnection of the body and the more-than-human world. Working from Gadigal Land (Sydney), Rhiannon makes contributions to community and culture through choreography, performance, collaboration, teaching, research Rhiannon’sand curation.recent projects include A Strange Place (Dance Nucleus, 2022); The Gift of Warning (New Breed, 2021); Explicit Contents (Sydney Festival, 2021); Long Sentences (Baltic Circle, 2019; Live Dreams 2020); and We Make Each Other Up (Dancehouse, 2018).
EXPLICIT RHIANNONCONTENTSNEWTON
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David Huggins David began dancing while completing his psychology degree in Aotearoa New Zealand. After graduating with a Bachelor of Dance from the VCA, University of Melbourne, he worked with Russell Dumas’ Dance Exchange in Melbourne, performing nationally and internationally with the company for nine years. David has also worked for other artists including Douglas Wright, Xavier Le Roy, Rhiannon Newton and Martin Del Amo. Aside from his work as a dancer, he has begun to explore his own choreographic interests through various residencies, and recently presented his first full- length work, Once More, with Feeling in New Zealand. Ivey Wawn Ivey (1990) lives on Gadigal land (inner-sydney) where she works as a dancer and makes dancebased work for different contexts. Her practice centres on embodiment and its interplay with the historic specificities of capitalist social relations. Her most recent work In Perpetuity has been iterated as part of Next Wave 2020 (online), Liveworks 2021 (online and at Carriageworks, Sydney NSW), and CEMENTA 22 (Kandos, NSW). A subsidiary work to In Perpetuity called Expiration April 10 was presented in Monumental (working title) at the Art Gallery of NSW in 2022. Ivey has ongoing relationships as a dancer for a number of Australian choreographers including Rhiannon Newton, Atlanta Eke, Angela Goh and Brooke Stamp. She also works regularly with artists from a visual art context, notably an ongoing series of collaborations with Rochelle Haley since 2014. Peter Lenaerts Peter is a Belgian sound artist active in the fields of performance, contemporary dance, & film. Lenaerts is fascinated by empty spaces and invisible or acousmatic sound. Sound that doesn’t scream for attention but sneaks into the listener’s ear unnoticed. Sound without ego, pure sound, with a focus on the medium rather than the maker. He was resident sound artist at the 2018 Hong Kong Arts Festival where he created music for Vortex by choreographer Wayson Poon. Other recent work includes Non-Place (2019) & MicroSleepDub (2015-2016). Apart from his own work, he has created soundtracks and composed music for choreographers and performance artists like Mette Ingvartsen, Andros Zinsbrowne, Salva Sanchis, Daniel Linehan, Eszter Salamon, ao. He strongly believes that in a culture dominated by visuals, nothing is as powerful, intense, and rewarding as simply listening. Karen Norris Karen has extensive experience as lighting designer for Theatre/Dance and Music throughout Australia and Europe. Based in London and Nice -1998 to 2008. Recent designs: Terrain, LoreBangarra Dance Theatre, NAISDA Francis Rings & Sani Ray, Songs Not To Dance To and Champions Martin del Amo, On View Sue Healey,CELLA Germany SF 2018 & Dance Massive 2019 & HIPS Narelle Benjamin, WinyanbogaYurringa AndreaJames Moogahlin, KOTAHI Atamira Dance Company NZ, Barbara and the Camp Dogs Belvoir Street, The Appleton Ladies Potatoe Race & The last Five Years Ensemble Theatre, Blak Box Barangaroo & SF 2019 Melbourne 2020 Urban Theatre, Broken Glass SF 2018 - The Weekend Liza-mare Syron SF2019 - New Zealand Festival 2019 Moogahlin, RED Liz Lea Dance, Rainbows End Darlinghurst Theatre, plenty serious TALK TALK Vicky van Hout, Blak Drop Effect Bankstown Arts Centre and Silence Karul Projects BlakDance and Sunshine Super Girl Andrea James Performing Lines. 31#2022SDC
Choi has recently been featured in i-D Asia (2018), Vogue Australia (2019, 2020) and RUSSH Magazine (2020) for her work in fostering positive changes for the future of the Australian fashion and cultural landscape.
Katy Green Loughrey (Producer) Katy grew up on the lands of the Darug people, and currently works on Gadigal land as Senior Producer, Public Programs, Art Gallery of NSW. She is a producer, curator and arts manager specialising in contemporary performance with over 15 years’ experience and a passion for work that is interdisciplinary, intercultural and affects social change. Most recently, she was the Executive Director for PYT Fairfield (20182021). As a Producer for Sydney Opera House (2015-2018), Katy developed and launched the new Artist and Sector Development program, as well as produced various high profile national and international projects for the Talks and Ideas program. She has also held producing and arts management roles with Performing Lines, PACT centre for emerging artists, Blacktown Arts Centre, Hawkesbury
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSFOR INDANCE
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Agnes Choi Agnes is a multi-disciplinary creative based in Sydney, Australia. Since graduating from the UTS Fashion & Textiles Honours degree in 2018, Choi has worked across several mediums including fashion design, acting, styling and costume design. With her dance and drama background, Choi is always finding ways to merge her worlds through narrative and artistic expression such as costume design for Explicit Contents for C-A-C as part of Sydney Festival 2021, and often roots her work in cultural, environmental and social discourses.
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