South
Family: a dance and sound performance about dying and living.
City Hall, Hobart
26th July - 29th July 2012
Tickets now on sale at Theatre Royal
www.theatreroyal.com.au
03) 6233 22 99
we are all born into family, but for each of us comes the time when we have to leave?
Family: a dance and sound performance about dying and living.
Family: a sound and dance performance about dying and living is the southern component of The Dance Project. Mature Artists Dance Experience, (MADE) Tasmania’s innovative contemporary dance theatre ensemble of mature adults is working in collaboration with Hobart’s Hospice Volunteers to create a two part dance and sound installation encapsulating the primary message that death is an essential element of life – and a community in fear and denial of death is a community in fear and denial of life”. (Hospice Volunteers).
In 2010 MADE was approached by Hospice Care Association of Southern Tasmania who had identified MADE and its performance methods as the means for establishing a dialogue with the broader community about the subject of death, predominately feared and treated as taboo. FAMILY Project Patron, Professor Michael Ashby (Director of Palliative Care, Royal Hobart Hospital and Ethicist) and the Hospice Volunteer’s believe it is the ignorance and fear of dying that is preventing many people from having a ‘good’ death. Similarly, MADE strongly advocates the valuable contribution mature members of our community make to our cultural identity – through dance and movement; forming a collaboration that is surprising, obvious and integrally connected.
It is through this unique collaboration that artistic interrogations are transposing the powerful discourse evolving from the two groups combined into phrasal encounters that are both visceral and unchartered. The Dance Project, a community arts initiative is focused on the critical investigation of the work through its year-long intensive workshops aimed at facilitating participatory experiences and new meanings within the form of dance. The introspection of the movement being created is further charged by the diverse ensemble of mostly woman ranging in ages from 50 year of age to 80 years of age. Yet, it is the intent of the movement resonated through the connection of the Hospice Volunteers and their intimate association with dying and death that reverberates long after experiencing Family: a sound and dance performance about dying and living.
And, now we are ready to share this with you! FAMILY is a bold, innovative project that is stimulating critical discourse about dying and connecting with death – through this exquisite participatory performance work – in life.
Sound Installation
Stories from the dying are brought into life through this collaboration with Sara Wright and Troy Melville working to construct a meaningful connection with death and dying through this immersive sound installation. Working with various nursing homes and the hospice volunteers to combine the story based narratives into a set that is experienced throughout the day prior or post the dance work. The recordings, both powerful and inspiring are about hope, love, loss and in whole, enable an insightful connection of the experiences of dying – as a part of living – enabling the participants to reclaim their existence. Viewed from 11am-3pm 26th-28th July at City Hall, this Sound Installation is a vital component to the dance performance, presented during the evening.
Key Creatives
Glen Murray is the Artistic Director for Family, the South component of The Dance Project and has been a member of most of Australia’s foremost dance companies, primarily Graeme Murphy’s Sydney Dance Company and The Australian Ballet, in a career spanning over 17 years. In 2005 Glen founded MADE (Mature Artists Dance Experience), Tasmania’s unique contemporary dance theatre ensemble of mature adults. To date Glen has created six major works for MADE, RunAway 2012, Birds 2011, Princess 2010, Pane 2008, 2009 Brisbane tour and 2010 Launceston tour, South West 2008 and Fair in 2007. Glen works closely with artists of another discipline on each MADE project to be able to realise meticulous aesthetic outcomes. MADE has partnered with Queensland Ballet to deliver the MADE program of dance and theatre skills development for mature adults in Brisbane from early 2012. In recognition of Glen’s pioneering work of contemporary dance theatre by mature adults in Australia Glen has been awarded a 2011 Churchill Fellowship travelling to the UK, Europe and North America in 2012.
Angie Abdilla, (Palawa) is the Creative Producer for www.The Dance Project.com.au (2011-2012). She works across performance, dance, video and film as a writer, director and producer. Community Arts have had a strong connection within Angie’s work across these art forms, primarily working in documentary and hybridizations in other formats and genres. Her film works have been screened at film festivals and held in collections/catalogues in museums and libraries internationally and nationally. Wanja- internationally acclaimed, toured for two-years international at festivals and was broadcasted on ABC1 (2011). She worked on the seminal series, First Australians (SBS, 2008), worked for ABC TV in Sydney as a producer (2007) while also serving as a Board Director for Performance Space (Carriage Works, Sydney – 2006 to 2008). She has an extensive association within contemporary performance advising artistically in performance and dance works and their relationship with video/new media over the past ten years, notably in Europe with touring works that included Venice Biennale Dance and Festival de danse in the Payes de la Loire, France (2000-01).
Sara Wright is the Local Engagement Coordinator Family, an artist, designer, curator and Hospice volunteer. Her social art practice includes making, collaborating and facilitating contemporary, socially engaged artforms. Sara has worked for several large contemporary art institutions including Newcastle Region Art Gallery, Arts Tasmania and the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in large project managing roles. Following the young death of her brother in 2007 from cancer, she has become interested in creating socially engaged artwork involving the communities around palliative and acute care settings.
Credits
Glen Murray Artistic Director
Sara Wright Community Engagement & Sound Installation
Angie Abdilla Creative Producer
Troy Melville Media Director & Sound Installation
Natalie Holtsbaum Set and Costume Design
Simon McIntosh Sound Design
Mark Blake Lighting Design & Lighting and Sound Operation
Lesley Graham Dramaturgy
Michael Bullock Production Manager
Project Associates
Professor Michael Ashby Director of Palliative Care: Royal Hobart Hospital
Lucia Ikin Project Associate (Hospice)
Anna Hill Hospice Care Association of Southern Tasmania
Jenny Fuller & Bruce Wilson Healthy Dying Initiative
Glenview Nursing Home
Hawthorn Village Nursing Home
Project Sponsors
Ogilvie High School
Hobart City Council,
Polka.dot & McClaren Vale
Project Funders
The Australia Council for the Arts
Arts Tasmania
Regional Arts Australia
Hobart City Council