Critical Path in partnership with Sydney Festival 2018 present Talking Dance, a series of conversations between the Festival artists exploring ideas in their performance works and broader practice.
What does dance mean here and now to us? How does it place us, how does it reflect who we are now? If choreography is the art of bodies in space and time, then dance offers us a unique way to engage with our place in time.
Dancing Here – State of Play
Sunday 14 Jan, 2pm
A conversation with NSW connected makers around the making of physically driven work;
Narelle Benjamin, Danielle Micich (Force Majeure), Jo Lancaster & Simon Yates (Acrobat)
Speaking outside of the context of a post-show talk, the artists consider common concerns and experiences and talk about the relationship of the work in this year’s festival to their other works and ongoing practice. Making work in NSW and elsewhere the conversation explores what the context of making work brings to the art that is created, and the ideas that underpin the bodies at play.
Dancing Now – Personal Experience
Sunday 21 Jan, 11am
Festival makers explore the place of personal choice in arts experiences and the artists’ choice in shaping this.
Aoi Nakamura & Esteban Fourmi (AΦE), and Harriet Gillies & Roslyn Helper (Zin Partnership)
Audience choice underpins both Whist & Glitterbox – the festival offers of AΦE and Zin Partnership respectively. This conversation dives into the different construction of the two works; one an hour-long experience creating a unique narrative for each viewer, the other a burst of activity lasting the duration of just one song selected by the public participants. The artists share what has driven them to make each show and the need to engage in a different way with their audiences.
Dancing Now – Memoir & Autobiography
Monday 22 Jan at 6pm
The artists discuss what it means to create work from memoir and autobiography, where personal story sits in relation to a wider cultural politic and identity.
Jimi Bani (Queensland Theatre), Dan Daw, Ghenoa Gela.
Three makers, tell their stories through their words and their bodies. They tell their own stories and that of others. They speak for themselves and for a broader community. Artists Jimi, Dan and Ghenoa discuss the ways in which they bring their own histories and that of others to their work. How a particular approach to creating can draw on diverse histories as much as the specific narratives that might infuse them.