Escalator at Abbotsford Convent now
Renowned Australian choreographer Stephanie Lake considers herself to have been fortunate in the opportunities given to her over her 30 years in the professional dance industry. She feels so strongly about handing on her good fortune to emerging choreographers that in 2023 she curated the first Escalator program.
Escalator is a night of short works by emerging choreographers — those beginning their journey as well as those venturing into a new phase in their dance making.
Escalator is underwritten by Stephanie Lake Company and supported by Abbotsford Convent, financed within the company’s yearly budget. Its first iteration was a great success, bringing works by five fresh dance makers to audiences in Melbourne. It swung from an “I dare you not to cringe” moment in Kady Mansour’s Menstruation the Musical through to a profoundly gut-wrenching exploration of racism, GEDOVAIT by First Nations choreographer and dancer Luke Currie-Richardson.
Lake describes the essence of Escalator as having a “punk aesthetic” and as a “completely open brief to make whatever [the choreographers] want.” She says that in 2023, many of the short works ended up being a springboard for bigger projects and commissions. This year, there are five more choreographers being featured: Alice Dixon, Marnie Green, Robert Alejandro Tinning, Thomas Woodman and Carmen Yih.
Lake keeps the selection process very informal, simply inviting people to make work. She understands the burden of writing applications and managing all aspects of a project, and wants her Escalator makers to be free to create and to be supported in terms of access to creative knowledge as well as practical infrastructure. Lake describes her choice of choreographers as “instinctual” and bases her decisions on her long-term understanding of dance in Melbourne: “There’s no criteria apart from being awesome,” she says with a smile.
Lake’s role is to curate the Escalator program, and for her, this is more about ensuring there is a range of work, talents and practices being showcased. In terms of mentorship, hers is a very loose approach — meeting artists where they are and offering only what is needed.
One of the Escalator 2025 choreographers, Robert Alejandro Tinning, shares insight into his work in the space of diasporic voices in the arts. Of Afro Ecuadorian heritage from the Esmeraldas region, Tinning describes himself as an “Afro futurist” and talks about the need for voices to be heard and rise above the noise — “hoping that the voice could then become part of a wider community and a culture.”
He says that this futurism is a way of envisioning a brighter future than the darkness often surrounding diasporic communities.
Tinning developed his sense of Afro futurism during a fellowship in Brazil, where he found he was “retracing steps to belonging.” One impetus for his work is “laying down a movement language for myself.” He says that much of his previous work has been improvisational, “driven by internal engines or rhythms,” and that he is now ready to explore something akin to a personal choreographic language.
Sandunga, Tinning’s work for Escalator 2025, is heavily influenced by his experience of being taken to Latin dance events as a young child by his dance-teaching mother and being immersed in the culture through dance. He has also become wedded to the idea of including live music in his work, and this will feature in his creation at the Convent.
Escalator is at Abbotsford Convent from August 6–9.
-Susan Bendell