Stuck in the Middle With You is a dance film and virtual reality experience, in which the viewer becomes part of the on stage performance of a live dance work originally choreographed by Gideon Obarzanek for Sydney Dance Company. Directed by film maker Matthew Bate together with Obarzanek, Stuck in the Middle With You fuses choreography, performance, documentary and drama. It’s also free to experience daily at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI, Melbourne) from Saturday 5 March until Monday 14 March.
Stuck in the Middle With You is ACMI’s first virtual reality (VR) commission, says ACMI director and CEO Katrina Sedgewick. “Stuck in the Middle With You is a unique work in its approach to VR. This is a cross-disciplinary collaboration which uses pioneering VR technology to capture a live performance experience in an entirely new, immersive platform,” said Sedgwick. “It not only places the viewer in the middle of the stunning dancers of Sydney Dance Company in a way that could never be possible in a theatre space, but it is both funny and surprising in this adaptation of this critically acclaimed dance piece.”
This isn’t the first time that Bate and Obarzanek have collaborated. They worked together on the short docu-drama, I Want to Dance Better at Parties, which one the Dendy Award for Best Short Film at the 2014 Sydney Film Festival. “I liked the idea that for the first time ever Sydney Dance Company could dance for you and you alone – that their focus would not be an audience in the stalls, but rather the audience would be you, standing amongst them on stage,” says Bate. ”We hope that by utilising this new storytelling technology the viewer can experience dance in a new way and from a perspective they may never otherwise get. I think we’re on the verge of a revolution in the way we experience stories using VR – and we are more than excited to have taken this first step with these incredible partners.”
For more information about screenings of the film, head to http://www.acmi.net.au/stuck-in-the-middle-with-you