Perth’s Fringeworld festival gets bigger every year and the dance component is no exception with no less than 15 dance events to choose from. Ranging from overseas acts to local offerings, the acts include performances and participatory events, and cover a range of dance genres.
For local emerging dance artists, Fringeworld can be a chance to get work into the public eye. In this year’s mix, recent Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) 2014 graduates Rikki Bremner, Sarah Chaffey, Scott Elstermann and Ezgi Gungor will be presenting a double bill entitled “Awkward Con-nections”. Bremner’s How to Con-nect delves into a world where we are always searching for connection. It’s Getting Awkward, by Chaffey, Elsterman and Gungor follows, capturing the moment of horror when one meets someone new and doesn’t know which greeting is appropriate. The program features original composition.
In the year since they graduated, the quartet have been involved with various works and artists locally and overseas. Bremner's work It’s strange to remember a touch over a thought was performed at 2015 Fringeworld. Chaffey performed in Cadi McCarthy’s Behind the Veneer and Bianca Martin’s From Afar on a Hill. Together with Linton Aberle, she presented a short work as part of Strut dance’s “In Short – In Situ” in 2015. Elstermann performed in Shona Erskine’s White Matter and in STRUT dance’s "Short Cuts". Gungor used an Artstart grant fom the Australia Council to work with international artists throughout Europe.
"Awkward Con-nections" plays the Blue Room Theatre, Northbridge, 27-30 January.
The creatives behind Ophelia are younger still. Director Yvan Karlsson is just 18, and choreographer Ellen-Hope Thomson, a third year WAAPA student, 19. Karlsson and Thomson invite you to lose yourself to insanity as they take you inside the body and mind of Ophelia, a character whose love for a lunatic sees her descend into madness. Ophelia captures the blurred moments of heartache and the inevitable thrash of craziness. Death looms large, love is lost and dead flowers reign.
In spite of his relative youth, Yvan Karlsson is no stranger to the world of professional performing arts. He has performed at both the Perth International Arts Festival, in last year’s Giants, and at Fringeworld, in Rites: Dying to Dance by Steamworks Arts. Karlsson is also an emerging artist with Spare Parts Puppet Theatre.
Ophelia plays the Parrott House, Maylands, 22-24 January.
For more information about “Awkward Con-nections”, Ophelia and the rest of the Fringeworld program, head to http://www.fringeworld.com.au/
Below: Rhiana Katz in Ophelia. Photo: Simon Pynt.
