eMOTION BY KATE MCCARTEN
As part of the iconic Hamer Hall’s re-opening ceremony next weekend, a group of over 200 kids from Melbourne’s diverse Western corridor will have a chance to showcase their new-found love of dance to the crowds around the city’s refurbished cultural hub. The Arts Centre Melbourne and The Barkley Arts Centre have joined arts-centre forces to create eMotion, a predominantly online-based dance workshop aimed at sparking an untapped passion within West Melbourne’s multifarious youth population. Renowned street-based choreographers Demi Sorono, Cat Sweeney, John Gray and their dedicated team of young leaders have worked tirelessly over the past six months to create these dance workshops for kids with next to no dance experience, and their creation is finally about to be unleashed. Sitting proudly on the artsy south side of the Yarra, Hamer Hall’s grand opening three decades ago was one of the urban art community’s biggest affairs – a waterfront performance hall to be marvelled at from far and wide. However, very quickly it became apparent that the hall failed to live up to the hype. Crucially, the acoustics were mediocre at best. Hamer Hall struggled along for nearly 30 years though, before finally closing two years ago for a huge almost $140 million overhaul. The new auditorium boasts cutting edge sound and comfort, new entrances have helped integrate the hall to its surroundings, and they’ve even doubled the number of toilets inside. However the main focus of these renovations is not superficial. Arts Centre Melbourne’s goal with the Hamer Hall transformation is to open the space up to young people, and people from the outer suburbs, by making a public space that people feel connected to. From tomorrow, the reopening celebrations will begin the process of forging those connections, and one performance to look out for during the reopening celebrations is eMotion – the very embodiment of the Hamer Hall’s ambition.
The series of eMotion performances will be a culmination of six months hard work by youths from Melbourne’s Western corridor. Most of the dancers in the group have never danced before, but have great teachers. Choreographers Sorono, Sweeney and Gray were all trusted with the task of creating the eMotion performance, not only because of their extensive experience in dance and choreography, but also because of their dedication to counter-racism. Because eMotion aims to be more than just a dance collective, with the initial goal to bring the cultural diversity of the Western suburbs together by practising inclusion and tolerance through a social and creative medium. Hailing from the Philippines, Demi Sorono (So You Think You Can Dance, 2008) gushes that, “What’s really cool about this whole group of young people is that they’re all from different cultural backgrounds – that’s what we were really focused on.” Each of the three choreographers has been working exclusively with a section of the larger group. However it hasn’t been a traditional dance class scenario. In order to
open the workshops up to as many wannabe-dancers from across the West as possible, eMotion had to eliminate the barrier of transport and distance. In fact, the eMotion dance project could very well be trailblazing the dance class of the future as the majority of the choreography and teaching was done through the power of technology. Sorono, Sweeney, Gray and their youth leaders filmed themselves teaching and demonstrating their choreography for every stage of their routines, while participating dance members could follow along from the comfort of their bedroom at a pace they were comfortable with. While the first video lesson was posted six months ago, the entire group only physically met for rehearsal three weeks ago. “[That was the] first time we’d actually seen each other’s choreography, as well as all the kids meeting for the first time,” recalls Sorono. Did it work well seeing all the separate pieces of dance come together as one? “Yeah it did actually – it was amazing. We had such a great day.” eMotion’s performances won’t be accompanied by the typical mish-mash of Michael Jackson and Usher tracks either. True to the ethos of the dance project, all the music eMotion will perform to are original songs produced by kids involved in the Dig Deep sound project, also run by
Arts Centre Melbourne. A hip hop orientated mentoring program, Dig Deep is an ongoing training and support system for emerging music artists throughout Melbourne. “The music we’ll be dancing to has been created by young up-and-coming artists that have produced, rapped and sung the music,” Sorono explains. “It’s all original tracks and not, you know, commercial. And that’s what it’s about – trying to create opportunities for young people and get them involved in something that they’re going to be passionate about.” The idea of finding passions within kids from all walks of life is something that is dear to Sorono’s heart, and she’s thrilled to be a part of any initiative which supports them in finding those passions. “It’s an amazing project. It just opens up a lot of doors for these kids.” For most of these kids, this is the first dance performance they will ever be a part of and the excitement is almost tangible. And when asked if Sorono thinks this experience has ignited a future in dance among members of the group, she is adamant: “Yes! Definitely. Yes, I would say definitely. Yes, my answer is yes.”
have a lot to say. “I’m extremely passionate about selfacceptance. Guilt, shame, and fear of ridicule and rejection play a big part in why we don’t take risks to live the life we envisioned in our youth,” says Thomas. “My goal is to be a mirror so people begin to realise that we are all dealing with a lot of the same issues, even if it be at different times. You are never alone.” Thomas’ messages around our definition of success, too, may strike a chord with many people struggling with what it means in the modern world. “We are taught to play it safe. ‘Grow up, follow the rules, go to school, get a good job, get married, save for a retirement, and then hope you live freely in those last golden years’,” says Thomas. “I want to challenge this idea of success. I created a workshop called The Visionaries Retreat to inspire people to live, to take their dreams and passions and create a sustainable lifestyle doing what you love. My ultimate commitment to myself and others is to be a reminder.” An interesting aspect to the way Thomas goes about this task is how she blends her work as a playwright and a choreographer. “I’ve always wanted to create work that infused the two in a way that lovers of both dance and theatre feel fulfilled,” she says. “I’m a huge fan of literature
too, and a lot of times you will find references to books in my work.” Wombman is an excellent example of this technique, featuring a section inspired by the Hunger Games trilogy written by Suzanne Collins. “Every audience member will understand the concept but those who’ve read the books will explore another layer of my work. I love leaving those nuggets for avid readers like myself.” So why Australia? Los Angeles isn’t exactly around the corner. The answer, as it so often does, comes down to simply a matter of chance. “I volunteered at the Los Angeles Web Festival a few months back which gave me the opportunity to connect with Max De Bowen of Max Films,” says Thomas. “We realised we had a lot of common interests and that Australia was on my radar as a place to explore my artistry. He connected me with Cy Gorman who is the Artistic Director of the White Room at Kindred Studios and an international debut was born.”
eMotion will take place at Hamer Hall on Saturday July 28 and Sunday July 29 between 2pm – 4pm.
WOMBMAN BY JOSH FERGEUS
When asked about what came first, her love of words or her love of movement, Ashlee Katrice Thomas is hard pressed to answer. “Technically, I was a dancer before I was writer,” she says, adding that she had no rhythm as a child. “But reading was and is still one of my first loves. I remember my father reading his Marvel comics to me as a child and the stories were so magnificent – I wanted to tell stories like my father did.” Thomas, choreographer of Wombman, is both a playwright and a choreographer, and founder of Los Angeles based performance company Enlightened Theatre. Thomas’ aim is for her work to inspire awareness of social issues and the responsibility of us all for our common humanity. “I find (dance) to be a less confrontational medium,” says Thomas. “It gives the audience the power to create personal meaning. Dance starts conversations.” Starting conversations is what Enlightened Theatre’s latest production Wombman is all about. A choreographic story told through Thomas’ distinctive blend of dance and theatre, the piece focuses on big issues such as gender, race, power, obsession – all told from the female perspective. Thomas comments that at a recent question and answer session after the premiere of the show in Los Angeles, the men had the most to contribute. “The show is really speaking from the female perspective, not in relationship to men or the male gaze but truly in relationship to herself,” she says. “I
think a lot of times men expect to see women raise up a fist and burn their bras in shows such as these but Wombman really explores ideas that are not publicly engaged amongst mixed company.” Thomas says an important part of Wombman is the acknowledgement of the male dynamic from a female perspective. She believes the work gives men an opportunity to consider life from the point of view of women they are close to – mothers, sisters, daughters, partners. “A man will get to hear some of our secrets. It may even answer a few questions they have about women.” Thomas believes that dance is distinct from any other art form in the way that it can approach issues which may be sensitive or seem foreign to their audience. “The grace and beauty of a dancer automatically captures the attention of the audience. Once you’ve done that, they are open to hearing what you have to say.” Which is good, given that Thomas and Enlightened Theatre
WHAT’S COMING BY ALASDAIR DUNCAN
Inspiration can strike in all kinds of unexpected places – this proved to be the case for choreographer Alex Harrison, when a chance visit to a historian friend inspired a bold and hugely expansive work on the future of dance. “I was doing some research on western Sydney, where I was living at the time,” Harrison explains, “and the local librarian put me in touch with Daphne Kingston, who’s an authority on the area.” Kingston has a 35-year long practice of documenting the area’s architecture in the form of paintings and drawings, as well as several publications to her name. “I went to visit her in her little house in the suburbs – it’s the sweetest little place full of plants and paintings, and she was there with her husband in her little red kitchen making tea.” That’s where the discussion took an unexpected political turn. “Daphne had been a visual artist in the ‘60s and ‘70s,” Harrison explains, “but she told me she became very disillusioned with the commodification of art. That’s the language she used, and it was so striking, because here I was in her kitchen, with her feeding me home-made biscuits with the marks from the back of the fork in them. I asked her if this political language was something she’d expressed at the time, or if she’d only started to express in hindsight. She said to me ‘I knew it at the time – coming events cast their shadows.’” Harrison was struck by that phrase. “She was saying that the conditions of the present can tell us about the future. Forecasting becomes paying attention to the present – I became really fascinated with this idea of forecasting, and it became central to the work I ultimately produced.” Beat Magazine Page 20
This conversation led Harrison to the creation of What’s Coming which is set to open soon at Dancehouse, North Carlton. The show, though expansive and split into many different parts, centres around the theme of observing the patterns of past and present in order to predict the future. It’s not just about dance, Harrison says, but about movement. “It explores the future through the body,” she explains, “so the dance is a form through which it attempts to divine. It looks at movement forms, not necessarily just dance forms. It looks at the way we move through a city, the way we interact with animals, the way we repeat to discover meaning, the way we choreograph our lives. It’s looking at movement as the divining tool, I guess.” Coming events cast their shadows – What’s Coming attempts to divine just what these shadows look like, and what the
future may hold. The show itself is a mixture of various elements, from installations to films to lectures to dance performances. It may sound like an audacious prospect, but that’s exactly what Harrison set out to do. “The show has taken the form of a festival,” she explains. “When I got the application for Dancehouse’s residency program, I was looking through the criteria, and they requested works that were manifestly audacious.” Harrison pauses here, and gives a wry laugh. “I thought, there’s a fucking invitation! I thought that was really exciting. What I was trying to do with this work was fit everything into the one choreographic performance piece, all the work that I’d been doing over the last few years. I just thought, what if I can take these elements and turn them into the one work, make them into a festival?” I ask Harrison to talk me through some of the individual elements of What’s Coming, and she obliges. “There’s a video installation upstairs called The Forest Of Gesture,” she explains, “and another installation called The Library Of Future Forecasts, which are submissions from 65 people who’ve collaborated with me on the project. I’ve been teaching a group of older adults dance and movement, so they’re doing a performance. There’s a lecture on mapping and choreography, there all these events along with the body of choreography. I guess I see the body of choreography as the central work, and all these others are satellite works. They’re in a dialogue with each other, and with the central theme of the choreography.” The space was also an integral element in the planning and design of the show. Miraculously, Dancehouse agreed to give their entire venue over to Harrison for What’s Coming, so in return, she was determined to use the space to its fullest. “I’ve designed certain works for particular rooms,” she says. “There are two studios upstairs, there’s a gallery space, there are various staircases, and we’ve
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Wombman takes place at The White Room at Kindred Studios on Saturday July 28.
used everything – the audience does a spiral through the building and ends up in the main performance area. They travel through a whole lot of information and exhibitions and things like that in the lead-up to the performance. I was definitely thinking about the Dancehouse space itself when I created it.” The question is, now Harrison has created a work this enormous, does she have a hunger to do something even bigger next time around? “I’m not in competition with myself,” she tells me with a laugh, “but it’s certainly opened up possibilities! I’m going to wait and see what happens with this show. If all of these events come off, I’ll be very happy, I’ll feel well equipped to go forward with any idea. Putting this work together has made me braver, that’s for sure!” What’s Coming runs from Tuesday July 31 to Saturday August 4 at Dancehouse.