Festival launch season is well underway and last week it was Perth’s turn to find out what is in store in 2014 at the Perth International Arts Festival (PIAF).
Headlining the dance program is Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company, bringing Deca Dance and Sadeh21. Deca Dance draws on artistic director Ohad Naharin’s choreographic history with the company, compressing the highlights of 20 years of dance into a single production. Sadeh21 is abstract yet emotional, political yet playful. It’s a work that explores and pushes boundaries. Deca Dance plays the State Theatre Centre, 9-12 February and Sadeh21 plays the State Theatre Centre 14-17 February. You can check out a trailer of Deca Dance on our home page.
From Israel to China – the Beijing Dance Theatre brings Haze. This is a work that explores the literal and figurative fog of pollution that hangs over our globalised planet. The Beijing Dance Theatre have created a response to the current environmental and global crises that evokes the oppression and alienation we face as individuals and as society. Haze plays His Majesty's Theatre, 27 February - 1 March.
Spanish dancer Israel Galvan will present his solo show, La Curva. Drawing inspiration from Parisian flamenco shows of the 1920s, La Curva takes traditional flamenco – footwork, percussive rhythms, and moody musical accompaniment – and delivers it with an avant-garde twist. Galvan is known as an innovator and a maverick – this is flamenco, but not as you know it. La Curva plays the Regal Theatre 21-23 February.
The UK’s NoFit State Circus makes its Australian debut at PIAF 2014, with Bianco. Bianco is an immersive promendade-style performance that takes place above, behind and all around you. Comprised of trapeze, tightwire and acrobatics, this gravity-defying performance is set to a pounding sountrack performed by a live band. Bianco plays the NoFit State Big Top, Ozone Reserve, Perth, 11 February - 1 March.
While West Australian Ballet’s “Ballet at the Quarry” season is a Perth institution, this year’s headline work is anything but traditional. Entitled Radio and Juliet, Romanian choreographer Edward Clug reinterprets Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to the music of Radiohead. The program also includes The Sofa and Mono Lisa by Israeli choreographer Itzik Galili, and a new work, Epic Fail by Australian choreographer and recently appointed artistic director of Buzz Dance Theatre, Lucas Jervies. "Ballet at the Quarry" plays the Quarry Amphitheatre, 7 February - 1 March.
For more information about these shows and other PIAF events go to 2014.perthfestival.com.au
Above - Sadeh21. Photo: Ohad Naharin.
Below - Israel Galvan in La Curva. Photo:
