Dancenorth’s Ambitious 2016 Program
Local creations will tour Australia and abroad
Their 2016 program has a dynamic range of projects including main stage works, a family production, festival collaborations, remote workshop programs and a long‐term partnership with Poruma Island, Torres Strait.
Dancenorth Artistic Director Kyle Page highlighted that unveiling a new direction and structure in 2015 led to a period of great transition and expansion, from which the company is now leveraging numerous artistic opportunities.
“2016 manifests a brilliant collision of enormously talented people, all coming together to realise Dancenorth’s most ambitious program to date,” said Page.
“Over the next nine months the company dancers will work with seven different choreographers including Amber Haines and I, Stephanie Lake, Ross McCormack, Lee Serle, Lucy Guerin and Gideon Obarzanek. Five new works will be created, all of which will premiere here in Townsville before touring nationally and internationally.”
“This year also marks the beginning of a 10‐year program of engagement between Dancenorth and the Urab Dancers (Poruma Island, Torres Strait). This exciting relationship provides a platform from which tradition, culture, story, song and dance will be shared and celebrated.”
“2016 also sees the company embark on international touring, a four city tour of Australia, and a 22 town regional and remote workshop tour,” Page and Rehearsal Director Amber Haines began the year on a high performing their work Syncing Feeling at MOFO in Tasmania.
“The creative energy at MOFO was absolutely amazing. The food, the wine, the art – I cant imagine a more brilliant way to kick‐start 2016” said Page.
Page and Haines are recently showed Rainbow Vomit an immersive work designed to target young audiences whilst maintaining appeal for kids of all ages. The work examined the impact of technological advancement on a child’s attention span, imagination and creative capacity.
Two highly regarded choreographers Stephanie Lake and Ross McCormack, have just created two discrete works, presented as a double bill titled IF__ WAS__. The work will tour Regional Queensland before going to Brisbane and Melbourne.
“Stephanie and Ross use shared design elements including costume and a sound score … They are each invited to literally fill in the blanks, the result of which will be the title of their individual work – we will then toss a coin to decide the running order. Neither of the choreographers will have seen the other work until opening night,” said Page.
As part of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in July, Choreographer Lee Searle will create a new work The Three Dancers. Composed by world renown composer, Elena Kats-Chernin, and inspired by Picasso’s painting of the same name, The Three Dancers was originally presented in 2015 as a chamber music concert.
“We’re very excited that Lee is returning to Australia from New York to produce a 30‐minute work for us, and to be part of this exciting international co‐commission,” said Page.
In September, Dancenorth head to Japan to tour Spectra a co‐commission between OzAsia Festival and Dancenorth directed by Kyle Page and Amber Haines that premiered at the OzAsia Festival in September 2015.
Spectra is an investigation into the latent beauty that resides within causal agency, illuminating the potency of intentional actions and their inherent power to bear fruit in the future. Spectra features guest performers from Batik Dance Company in Tokyo and the visual design of internationally renowned artist Tatsuo Miyajima.
A full program is available for download on our website www.dancenorth.com.au
