Chunky Move and Melbourne’s Signal arts studio have come together to explore the world through children’s eyes with It Sounds Silly, a performance for the inner child in all of us. The production will bring together 24 young performers aged 13 to 20, working with four of Melbourne's young contemporary dancers to celebrate the magic and absurdity of childhood.
Director and choreographer Adam Wheeler is the artistic associate of Stompin, a dance company based in Tasmania, which makes dance work with young people. He is also the artistic director of 2ndToe Dance Collective, based in Melbourne, and a passionate advocate of dance and performance by young people.
“It Sounds Silly will enter the world as we saw it as children,” says Wheeler. “Through dance, sound and video the performance will look at childhood memories and first time experiences such as things we feared like swallowing a watermelon seed and growing an enormous melon in our stomach.”
For the work, the young performers shared stories from their childhoods and experiences that made them the people they are today. These stories were workshopped in rehearsal with Wheeler and the professional dancers and worked up into performance pieces, reflecting both individual stories and the universal experiences of childhood.
It Sounds Silly is part of The Next Move, a Chunky Move initiative presenting performances created by the next generation of Australian dance makers. The program is designed to bridge the divide between young choreographers making small independent work and more established choreographers running their own organisations or engaged with larger commissions.
Friday 19 August and Saturday 20 August, 6.30pm and 8pm
SIGNAL (Flinders Walk, next to Sandridge Bridge)
FREE OUTDOOR EVENT