The space where technology and the human body collide…
Fresh from the 7th International Festival of Contemporary Dance at the 2010 Venice Biennale, Chunky Move bring their groundbreaking and internationally celebrated production GLOW to the Seymour Centre. GLOW will light up the Inner West’s favourite arts hub for four nights only, with two performances a day from Wed 13 – Sat 16 October 2010.
Dance and technology collide in this hugely inventive performance featuring the latest in multi media technology. A collaboration with the now legendary interactive software creator Frieder Weiss who pioneered GLOW’s innovative ‘biotech fiction’, the production won a Helpmann Award for Best Dance Work in 2008 and has been described as ‘ingenious‘ with Weiss’ visuals deemed ‘a marvel‘ by the New York Times in 2008.
GLOW is a solo performance by phenomenal dance forces Sara Black and Harriet Ritchie, taking alternative shows. Utilising a sophisticated video tracking system a digital landscape is generated in response to the dancers’ movement. The bodies’ gestures are extended by and in turn manipulate the video world that surrounds it, rendering no two performances exactly the same.
“In GLOW, light and moving graphics are not pre-rendered video playback, but rather images constantly generated by various algorithms responding to movement,” says Chunky Move’s Artistic Director, Gideon Obarzanek.
“In most conventional works, employing projection lighting, the dancer’s position and timing have to be completely fixed to the space and timeline of the video playback. Their role is reduced to the difficult chore of making every performance an exact facsimile of the original. In GLOW, the machine sees the performer and responds to their actions, unlocking them from a relationship of restriction and tedium.”
Australian composer Luke Smiles created GLOW’s soundtrack, with additional music from Ben Frost. Throbbing guitar-based textures emerge from nothing and slowly coalesce into huge, forbidding forms that are felt as much as heard. The soundscape enhances the dance/ digital relationship and sets the sonic tone pushing comfort thresholds, and exploiting the extremes of pitch and volume.
GLOW will form part of SEAM 2010: Agency & Action run by Critical Path, Sydney’s choreographic research centre, and the University of Western Sydney. Held at the Seymour Centre on 15 and 16 October 2010 this two-day symposium will focus on interactive digital technologies in performance, underpinned by groundbreaking artist and academic research from Australia and around the world. The program will feature public talks, workshops, performances, and installations including the “Articulated Head”, Australia’s first thinking robot by Australian performance artist Stelarc.
GLOW’s opening night on Wednesday 13 October also offers a very special treat, with the show’s renowned choreographer and Artistic Director of Chunky Move Gideon Obarzanek set to present a free post-show discussion with Margie Medlin from Critical Path, as part of the Seymour Centre’s Enquiring Minds talk series, after the 8.30pm performance.
Catch the remarkable and ephemeral GLOW at the Seymour Centre before it disappears.
WHERE: Seymour Centre, Cnr Cleveland Street and City Road, Chippendale, 2006
WHEN: Wed 13 (7pm & 8:30pm) Thurs 14 (12pm & 2pm), Fri 15 (7pm & 8:30pm), Sat 16 (7pm & 8:30pm) October
BOOKINGS: Box Office P: 02 9351 7940 W: www.seymourcentre.com
PRICES Adult – $25, Concession $20, Groups (8+) – $18
OTHER: Not suitable for children under 6 years old
