Body As Material is a four-week development project for four artists taking place across 2016. The project concentrates on solo practice and is intended to offer participants the opportunity to take some time to reflect on their own work, play, support the others through exchange, feedback and dialogue and start to think about making some work.
Artists: Joshua Pether (WA), WeiZen Ho (NSW), Alison Plevey (ACT) and Ghenoa Gela (NSW).
Facilitator: Julie Vulcan
Dates
Phase 1:
6 – 10 March (Bathurst)
11 – 17 March (Bundanon Trust)
Phase 2
8-14 August (Bathurst)
Phase 3
7-11 November (Parramatta)
Body as Material: Solo Practice is a partnership between Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, Bundanon Trust, FORM Dance Projects and Critical Path.
Ghenoa Gela is a Sydney Independent performing artist and a proud Torres Strait Islander woman from Rockhampton. She has worked across several mediums such as Dance, Circus, Television and Stage. Ghenoa facilitates dance workshops in remote communities. She is very inspired by her family’s stories and wants to increase awareness of her Torres Strait Islander culture through dance. She aspires to inspire.
Ghenoa’s most recent adventure, saw her collaborating with Force Majeure’s Danielle Micich, on ‘Mura Buai – Everyone, Everyone’ (Performance Space ‘Liveworks Festival 2015’). Other credits include: Force Majeure ‘Nothing to Lose’ (Sydney Festival 2015, Melbourne Season 2015), Ghenoa Gela ‘Winds of Woerr’ (Melbourne Next Wave Festival 2014, Spirit Festival 2015), Dance Site Festival (2012/2015), Move it Mob Style TV Series – Deadly Vibe Australia (ABC3, NITV 2011-2014), My Darling Patricia ‘The Piper’ (Sydney Festival 2014, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2015), Circus Oz ‘From the Ground Up’ (National & International Tour 2012/2013), Shaun Parker ‘Happy As Larry’ (National & International Tour 2011/2012).
WeiZen Ho is a Performing Artist working in composition, sound, choreography and movement. She locates imageries from livinghood, myths and dreamings, and excavates linguistic processes searching out their connection to identity. WeiZen co-founded TUFA, (1999-2004) a SE Asian fusion music group which amalgamated visual and theatrical elements. She developed The Borrowed Language (2009), a performance themed on unbelonging, migration trails and her family history in Melaka. She and Alan Schacher were funded in 2015 to develop Unappeased, a project inspired by Malaysian Taoist tangki practices.
Joshua Pether is an in independent dancer/choreographer based in Western Australia. Originally from QLD he is of indigenous heritage and also identifies with having a disability. His current practice takes many forms and moves between the more traditional investigative processes of dance to moments of the bizarre. His vision and practice are shaped by these two intertwining cultures that help feed his creativity and also enable him to embody this through his own physicality. He sees himself as an activist who is passionate about providing opportunities for those who are unseen and making work that is relevant both politically and culturally in the current environment that exists in disability lead arts practice. He is a graduate of ACPA (Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts) and was a member of LINK Dance Company in 2012 where he toured both nationally and internationally with the company. He currently works for Touch Compass, New Zealand’s only professional integrated dance company. He is also the recipient of two Australia Council grants for professional development.
Alison Plevey is a dance and physical theatre artist, choreographer, teacher, improviser and site dance maker working in Central Western NSW and the ACT. A graduate of WAAPA, she holds a first class honours degree, Bachelor of Arts – Dance. Her work communicates contemporary issues, human stories and explores the interface of physical performance with non-traditional theatre environments, often using durational approaches. She co-director of Bathurst based dance and physical theatre company Lingua Franca with Adam Deusien. Their recent work ‘Unsustainable Behaviour’ will feature at ArtLands, the 2016 Regional Arts Conference in Dubbo. In 2014 she received a Canberra Critic’s Circle Award for her ‘tour de force’ solo performance in Johnny Castellano is Mine. Her work most recently integrates interdisciplinary collaboration; including ‘Bodywork’ with musician, Alex Voorhoeve and jeweller, Simon Cottrell and ‘Dancing with Drones’ at LiveWorks, Carriageworks (SYD) with film/new media artists Starrs and Cmielewski. Alison is co-producer of annual Canberran choreographic lab strange attractor and Live Art Party Sound and Fury. In 2016, she is presenting SPROUT at Art, Not Apart Festival, Autumn Lantern at Enlighten Festival and Nervous at Mt. Stromlo Observatory.
Julie Vulcan is a Sydney based independent interdisciplinary artist with a 25-year practice. Her work spans performance, site responsive and durational forms, installation, video, digital/online media, text and sound to experiment and push new ideas. Performance works have toured nationally and internationally. Julie was the Associate Director and subsequent Artistic Director/CEO of PACT centre for emerging artists, Sydney 2010 – 2014. She was awarded an Australia Council for the Arts Cultural Leadership grant in 2012 and regularly mentors artists, runs masterclasses and facilitates labs and events. Julie has been affiliated with the Perth based Proximity Festival since 2013 as a member of the curatorium, a mentor and lab facilitator. In 2014 she established base-metal a Sydney platform and working group for experimental performance art/live art practice. She is one half of SQUIDSILO a duo working across physical and virtual platforms to create interactive environments since 2010.