Melbourne dance lovers are in for a treat, with an eclectic line-up in of dance works in the program.
Opening Thursday 6 October is Canadian circus/dance company Les 7 Doigts De La Main (The Seven Fingers) with "Triptyque". Hailing from Québec, renowned as the home of the modern circus discipline, Les 7 Doigts de la Main is one straddles the gap between circus and dance to take audiences where neither can alone. For the first time in the company’s history, a trio contemporary choreographers have been invited to reimagine the collision of these forms, under the artistic direction of Samuel Tétreault. The vocabulary of dance is expanded, while circus itself is transformed.
"Triptyque" plays Arts Centre Melbourne 6-9 October.
Also opening Thursday 6 October is a new work from Lucy Guerin Inc. Entitled The Dark Chorus, Lucy Guerin’s latest work reaches back to the roots of ancient theatre to create something entirely of the now. The Dark Chorus explores both the voice of the people and our most intimate of thoughts, conjuring a moving sculpture of bodies and of concepts made flesh. Shadow and illumination, the individual and the mob, the imaginary and the all-too-real – these opposites merge together in a maelstrom of dance with an irresistible undertow.
The Dark Chorus plays the Meat Market, 6-12 October.
Thank You for Coming: Attendance, by Brooklyn-based choreographer Faye Driscoll, is next, opening Friday 7 October. Driscoll takes audiences on a wild ride in Attendance, the first work from her three-part series "Thank You for Coming". Deceptively chaotic and spontaneous, Driscoll crafts a heightened exploration of how we experience ourselves in relation to connecting to other bodies, stories and spaces.“I am obsessed with a basic problem that we all encounter: being ‘somebody’ in a world of other ‘somebodies’,” says Driscoll. “My work attempts to pull apart this daily performance of self. I do this by enacting it in excess, blowing it up to the extreme in order to reveal its edges and create more space, more possibility for who we can be.”
Thank You for Coming: Attendance plays Arts House, North Melbourne Town Hall, 7-10 October.
Dancehouse’s biennial "Dance Territories" program opens Friday 14 October, pairing an Australian and an international choreographer to explore the subtle connections ignited when their works collide. The 2016 theme, Border Lines, sees two artists question the borders between body and place in relation to the political and the personal.
Indigenous Australian artist Sarah-Jane Norman’s live art installations In the River’s Children and Take this for it is my body dissect the impact Australia’s colonial history has had on the artist’s own body, offering moments that unsettle the safety of historical distance. Norman’s work traverses artforms, inviting us to take our place in shared narratives.
Algerian-French choreographer Nacera Belaza brings to Melbourne her seminal piece THE SHOUT, performed with her sister. This duet observes the intersection of globalisation and sacred ritual. In Belaza’s words, “the scream is when the anchor does not let go.”
"Dance Territories" plays Dancehouse 14-16 October.
Canandian company Le Patin Libre's Vertical Influences, opens 15 October. What happens when you combine contemporary dance with ice-skating? That’s what Le Patin Libre explores. It’s the only company in the world to realise the possibilities opened up to contemporary dance when a pair of ice-skates enters the frame. Five performers turn their backs on sequins and scorecards in favour of adrenaline-pumping athletics and theatrical sophistication. The breathtaking momentum of the skating body combined with the freedom of the choreographic imagination results in forms untethered by gravity, like lightning over a frozen lake.
Vertical Influences plays O’Brien Group Arena 15-22 October.
And finally, for Flamenco fans, there is Sara Baras's Ballet Flamenco, with Voces, opening 21 October. Flamenco is in the blood of Sara Baras; since her earliest lessons as a child taught by her mother, she has channelled the energies that have led her to the most prestigious stages in the world today. A cultural icon in Spain, the first lady of flamenco marries ferocious footwork with flowing grace. Steeped in tradition but drawn in countless directions by influences across history, flamenco is a form as restless and irresistible as the spirit of its homeland. Voces is Baras’ salute to the maestros who have shaped her gift, and a tribute to the art of flamenco itself. This large-scale production features 14 dancers and musicians.
Voces plays Arts Centre Melbourne, 21-23 October.
For more information about all these shows, including bookings, head to www.festival.melbourne/2016
