Proper Motion and La Infinita Compañía

Established by choreographer and dancer Lisa Maris McDonell during COVID lockdowns of 2020, Proper Motion was conceived to provide opportunity and visibility to regionally based dance artists and their projects. They aim to make world class work from a regional centre, giving audiences and communities from the Illawarra / Shoalhaven (and beyond) the opportunity to witness, experience and engage with contemporary dance making and performance.

La Infinita Compañía is directed by Mexican choreographers and producers Rodrigo González and Raúl Tamez. Despite being an independent project, the company has grown rapidly generating different platforms such as The International Contemporary Dance Festival of Mexico City, its own studio and a space for artistic residencies. The company has also developed different social projects with marginalised communities, utilising contemporary dance as a vehicle of expression.

“Optimal Stopping grew out of a promise made in 2018 between myself and La Infinita Compañia’s Raúl Tamez to work together on a project. After a few failed attempts to get something off the ground I contacted Raúl during the first lockdown in early 2020 with an idea to create a work that would only ever be rehearsed remotely, with the first time the work was performed in person to be witnessed by audiences (at the time of course not knowing when that would be).

Raúl and five of Mexico’s finest dancers attended via zoom over a number of weeks to learn the work alongside a group of professional dancers from Wollongong. Optimal Stopping sits somewhere between improvisation and choreography with the dancers following a set of instructions as a score. Essentially the audience will witness the dancers getting to know each other and the work during the performance while they respond to the space, the score and each other.”

- Lisa Maris McDonell