Resource | Text: Article | |
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Title | About time dance took centre stage | |
Creator Contributors |
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Abstract/Description | Dance Massive 2009 | |
Related Organisation | ||
Source | The Age, Francis Cooke, South Melbourne, Vic, 1854 | |
Page | 18 | |
Date Issued | 17 February 2009 | |
Catalogue ID | U/PR/03 | |
Holding Institution | Theatre and Dance Platform | |
Language | English | |
Citation | Robin Usher, About time dance took centre stage, The Age, Theatre and Dance Platform, 17 February 2009, 18 | |
Resource Identifier | 69906 |
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A new event celebrates Melbourne's reputation as a dance capital, writes Robin Usher.
MELBOURNE is Australia's capital of contemporary dance and our dance companies tour internationally more than other art forms, but until now there has been nothing to celebrate this vibrancy.
Dance Massive is designed to bring companies and dancers together under one banner.
Performances over the 12 days from March 3 will include groups from around the country, as well as Melbourne-based Chunky Move with Gideon Obarzanek's latest international hit, Mortal Engine.
"It has been touring constantly since it premiered at the Sydney Festival last year and went on to the Edinburgh Festival," says Steven Richardson, artistic director of Melbourne's Arts House and the driving force behind Dance Massive.
"Melbourne's contemporary dance infrastructure is the envy of almost every other city in Australia but there is nothing to celebrate it except the annual programming of the Melbourne (International Arts) Festival," he says. "The time is propitious to try to create a platform to showcase the art form nationally."
His plan is to make the event biennial and develop the program further in 2011 and 2013.
"We made a national call for expressions of interest this year and were inundated with responses," he says at his Arts House headquarters in the old North Melbourne town hall.
The organisation also hosts events at the Meat Market in North Melbourne and both venues will be part of Dance Massive.
Other groups - Malthouse Theatre, Ausdance and Dancehouse - joined in to make the event possible. Richardson is especially pleased to see contemporary dance being regularly programmed at the Malthouse, which will host Chunky Move and Brisbane's Splintergroup.
The Queensland company is little known in Melbourne but its two works in the program have both toured internationally. Lawn, which will be seen at the Malthouse's Merlyn Theatre, was conceived in Berlin and developed at Brisbane Powerhouse before going to Singapore and Germany. Roadkill was included in London's Dance Umbrella at the Barbican Centre in 2007 and will be performed at the Meat Market.
Choreographer Lucy Guerin will also appear at the Meat Market with a new work, Untrained, which pairs two specialised dancers with two untrained ones.
"It's terrific to have Lucy and Gideon (Obarzanek) in the program because it lifts the profile to have their work appearing," Richardson says. He has a background in dance and was on the Australia Council's dance board for more than five years, as well as working with Circus Oz. He says Dance Massive will be the first opportunity for companies to present full-length works together since Melbourne's Greenmill Dance Project, which ran for six years until 1998.
Six overseas presenters will be here for Dance Massive thanks to $30,000 from the Australia Council. "It's not about setting up a retail model but rather establishing relationships with local artists and international agents," Richardson says.
Arts Victoria is also providing $50,000 to the project.
Richardson believes the potential audience for contemporary dance is huge, and expects the Meat Market's 180 Seconds in (Disco) Heaven or Hell on Sunday March 8 to attract an enthusiastic audience.
It will combine local choreographers working with groups specialising in ballroom, breaking and different sorts of ethnic dances.
"There will be a party atmosphere and many varieties of dance," Richardson says. "I think that leads to a more meaningful experience than passively sitting in a seat in the theatre."
Dance Massive runs from March 3 to 15 at the Malthouse Theatre, Arts House and Dancehouse. Go
to dancemassive.com.au or book on 9685 5111.