The Perth International Arts Festival has launched its 2015 program. Audiences will have the opportunity to see a range of dance at this year’s festival, with four works on offer.
Headlining the dance program is New York’s Mark Morris Dance Group with Mozart Dances. As the name suggests, the work, which blends contemporary and classical technique, is set to the music of Mozart. The ensemble of 18 will be joined by West Australian Symphony Orchestra and two guest pianists.
Aakesh Odedra will bring his solo show “Rising”, featuring choreography by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Russell Maliphant, Akram Khan and Odedra. Each of the four solos was created especially for this show. The four works each draw on Odedra’s background in the classical Indian dances Kathak and Bharata Natyam, as well as contemporary dance.
Broome-based Indigenous dance theatre group Marrugeku will present a new work, Cut the Sky. Exploring the effects of contemporary issues from a specifically Indigenous perspective, Cut the Sky presents a meditation on Australia’s future through a blend of contemporary and classical theatre, dance, poetry and music.
As always, West Australian Ballet will present a mixed bill at the Quarry Amphitheatre. Entitled “Zip Zap Zoom”, the program is named after its headline work, a fusion of hip-hop, ballroom, cabaret and other dance forms, by Colombian-Belgian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. The program also includes a second work by Ochoa, La Pluie (The Rain), William Forsythe’s Steptext and new work Hold the Fourth by WAB dancer Daniel Roberts.
Aakesh Odedra. Photo: Chris Nash.
