World Premiere It Cannot Be Stopped Princess by Benjamin Hancock The lines of birds by Paea Leach Fountain by Atlanta Eke Dance can be created from many different departure points. Although dance is steeped in historical ritualism, contemporary dance is, with only one hundred years of existence, a young art form. At the turn of the 20th century, when Isadora Duncan began utilising the ancient rituals that surrounded dance, nature and the body, to inform her performance ideology, she revolutionised our view of the physical. She showed the female form as it was, not as an ideal or as an object of desire. It shocked and repulsed people. Yet, in its controversy, it awakened a new consciousness of beauty and communication. From the discovery of what human physical expression could be, beyond the codified norm of society, a new art form was born. From here onwards, contemporary dance would always be ahead of its time, reflecting and reacting to all that surrounds it. In Atlanta Eke, Benjamin Hancock and Paea Leach, we find distinct traces of the contemporary dance’s turbulent and creative history. Reacting, revolting, digesting and distilling, laying out pathways for themselves and their practice. I’ve enjoy watching all three in their distinguishable, unstoppable ways, sharing what they love most, writing their traces into the 21st Century. I hope you will enjoy this too. Anouk van Dijk
Benjamin Hancock on the Princess Princess is a multi layered collection and collision of ideas based around its name. I am interested in placing myself as the Dynast; I view my practice as an inheritance, a continuation of information and vocabulary that strongly influences my personal decisions as a performer. With this position I have the power to create my own personal kingdom, a house of observation, architecture, interest, ideas, and possibilities. I am the ruler of the body in which I exist, giving me power to change the recent history of the present performance. Here I can jump back through the work to redevelop/redefine its potential impact on its future The question of dependence in existence arises throughout my investigation, for in order to be a ruler there must be a people to rule; and a community of people seldom thrive without a leader. If one does not exist, what becomes of the other?
Princess Direction & Choreography: Benjamin Hancock Lighting Design: Bosco Shaw Sound Design: Alisdair Macindoe Costume Design: Jack Hancock Performer: Benjamin Hancock
Paea Leach on the lines of birds the lines of birds is a work like a prayer, a silent flock of birds at great heights moving through vast spaces. It is underpinned by a rigorous approach to process, discussion, not knowing and working toward what emerges in an environment when ‘something’ is established. It is a work for the collision and ‘elide’ of body and sound as for the sounds we do not usually listen for. It began before we arrived and will continue past this tunnel of light, air, sound, and songs from great distances. I am grateful to Chunky Move and moreover to each collaborator to have had this time in this particular and enriching discussion.
The lines of birds Direction & Choreography: Paea Leach Lighting Design: Bosco Shaw Composition & Sound Design: Madeleine Flynn & Tim Humphrey Costume Consultant: Shio Otani Performers: Paea Leach, Gregory Lorenzutti, Michaela Pegum
Atlanta Eke on Fountain How can a performance age? The ageing process is both an expression of natural physiological development and society’s division of life into temporal objects. The life of Fountain is 200 minutes long. It is a continuous and multidimensional accumulation of change. It is performed over a season of divisions, which structure its lifetime into a series of objects contained in each other. Fountain examines the space between its continuous natural change, growth and decline and the series of divisible moments projected onto its life.
Princess was originally developed as part of National Gallery of Victoria’s Melbourne Now dance program, curated by Antony Hamilton.
Fountain Direction & Choreography: Atlanta Eke Lighting Design: Bosco Shaw Composition & Sound Design: Daniel Jenatsch Costume Consultant: Shio Otani Performer: Atlanta Eke
Benjamin Hancock Benjamin Hancock is a Melbourne-based dancer and choreographer. He has performed in Chunky Move’s Keep Everything, Assembly and was part of the creative team for It Sounds Silly as Costume Designer. A much sought after dancer, Hancock has worked with some of Australia’s leading choreographers including Martin del Amo, Sue Healey, Lucy Guerin and most recently in Neil Armfields’ The Ring Cycle for Opera Australia. A prolific solo performer, Hancock has presented his own work at Lucy Guerin Inc’s Pieces For Small Spaces, Faux Mo at MOFO and DARK MOFO and at variety of Melbourne clubs and short works festivals. Paea Leach Paea Leach is a dance maker, teacher and performer. She has worked in Australia with Chunky Move, ADT, Perth Theatre Co and a myriad of independent artists, and in Europe with PVC in Germany and recently with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Eastman in Belgium. Leach has made work funded and unfunded via STRUT, Lucky Trimmer Berlin, UNSW, WAAPA and Co Loaded. She has been developing a body of work with Perth based writer/improviser Jo Pollitt (www.co-works.co) that harnesses dancing and writing as equal physicalities, has been an Asialink artist in residence in Cambodia, made small and large scale works and recently went to Tibet in search of the people of the Holy Land. This is her first site-specific work. Atlanta Eke Atlanta Eke is an Australian artist, dancer and choreographer. She has recently performed the work of Marina Abramovic and Joan Jonas for Kaldor Public Art Project’s #27: 13 Rooms. Her solo Monster Body has been presented at the NextWave Festival, SEXES Festival, Dance Massive, MONA FOMA, MDT Stockholm, Margaret Lawrence Gallery and Fierce Festival, Birmingham. In 2010 Atlanta was a DanceWEB Europe scholarship recipient and received NextWave Kickstart in 2011. In 2012 she was a Dancehouse Housemate and received an ArtStart Grant. Atlanta was recently nominated for a Green Room Award for her work, Monster Body.
Chunky Move Board — Peter Biggs CNZM (Chair), Stephen Armstrong, Jeremy Blackshaw, Annie Dawson, Rhod EllisJones, Jeff Khan, Margaret Parker, Margaret Thompson, Anouk van Dijk. Chunky Move Staff — Artistic Director: Anouk van Dijk Executive Producer: Catherine Jones Business & Program Manager: Hillary Coyne Production & Operations Manager: Michael Carr Marketing & Development Manager: Luke McKinnon Office & Program Coordinator: Megan Williams Marketing & Development Coordinator: Pauline Robert Production & Operations Coordinator: Blair Hart Finance Administrator: Anne McDonald Class Curator: Jo Llyod Chunky Move would like to thank the following people and organisations for their support of It Cannot Be Stopped: Martin del Amo, Tim Birnie, Michaela Coventry, Victor Eke, Antony Hamilton, Mary McCormack, Megafun, David Miller, Caterina Sciacca and Alex W Grant Violins.
Government Partners —
Chunky Move is supported by the Victorian Government, through Arts Victoria and the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body. Major Partners —
Wine parnter —
Production Partner —
Supporting Partners — Minter Ellison, Creative Framing, Hall and Partners Open Mind Next Move Leaders Program — Chunky Move would like to thank and acknowledge the foundation donors of our Next Move Leaders Program: The Daniel and Danielle Besen Foundation and Peter and Mary Biggs.