Critical Path, The Keir Foundation and Creative Australia invite you to celebrate a decade of the pivotal Keir Choreographic Award in Melbourne on 24 August.
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📆: 24 AUGUST 2024
🕔: 5PM – 10PM
📍: ABBOTSFORD CONVENT
WHAT REMAINS is a celebratory program that revisits and amplifies some of the major contributions the Keir Choreographic Award (KCA) has made to the Australian dance ecology.
Launched in 2014 and held biennially over five editions, KCA was a unique and innovative public-private initiative dedicated to the commissioning, presentation, and promotion of new Australian choreography. Initiated by The Keir Foundation in partnership with Dancehouse, Carriageworks and Creative Australia, the Keir Choreographic Award (KCA) was an incredibly significant commissioning and presentation context for independent Australian choreography. With a total of 40 new choreographic works over ten years, the KCA legacy has truly influenced the scale and vibrancy of Australian dance.
For this program, a suite of artists involved in the awards have been invited to respond to WHAT REMAINS as a provocation. Previously commissioned artists will perform embodied memories of their KCA works. Photographer Gregory Lorenzutti and videographer Cobie Orger – who have both documented every edition of the award – will revisit their archives as original installations. A publication that critically maps the history, impact and implications of KCA and a dedicated website will be launched. And finally, live SCRIBES will capture the evening as we wrap up with a party.
Please join us for celebrations in Melbourne on 24 August at Abbotsford Convent.
PROGRAM [MELBOURNE]
PERFORMING WHAT REMAINS
PERFORMANCES WITH: REBECCA JENSEN & AVIVA ENDEAN, TRA MI DINH, JO LLOYD
As a performative articulation of one of the main invitations extended to the authors contributing to the KCA publication, a selection of KCA commissioned artists have been invited to respond to WHAT REMAINS as a provocation. This is a reflection on what the muscular memory retains, on how the body re-inhabits and on how the archive re- en-live-ens. No rehearsals, 10 min. max, one evening only.
BOOK LAUNCH: COMPETING CHOREOGRAPHIES
Edited by Angela Conquet & Philipa Rothfield
This publication critically maps the history, impact and implications of the Keir Choreographic Award, Australia’s only cash contemporary dance prize, whilst offering broader reflections on competition, criticality, community and place in dialogue with international thinkers and practitioners. Through interviews, analytical and poetic re-readings of the award’s embodied and digital archives, it mobilises multiple perspectives and disciplinary contexts in order to engage with what remains.
The book will be available for free at the event or ordered online ($30).
INSTALLATIONS
Original video artwork and installation: Cobie Orger
Photographic installation: Gregory Lorenzutti
Scribe archives and live scribing : Leisa Shelton
With What Remains, we have invited the memories of those who have been not active participants in the award but whose participation was absolutely necessary in order for the award to exist: photographers, videographers, scribes; all active witnesses of what unfolded. This award equally belongs to them, for they have journeyed with it for its entire history. We have invited some of these unusual ‘keepers’ — the Melbourne KCA’s videographer (Cobie Orger) and a photographer (Gregory Lorenzutti) as well as a team of scribes led by Leisa Shelton to also respond to the theme of ‘what remains” by re-enacting their archives as original installations and live scribing.
WEBSITE LAUNCH
Designed by Sara Kaur, this website is a repository of the awards archives, including live documentation of all commissioned works as well as responses to these works (reviews, essays, etc.). The website also captures the rich and diverse local and international contributions the award’s public program has generated over the years such as podcasts, recorded lectures and talks, writings and other poetic responses. The website thus represents a vivid and lasting archive of the many contributions this award has offered to the local dance ecology and beyond.
IMAGE: Tra Mi Dinh and Claire Leske in The ___ 2022, The Keir Choreographic Award 2022. Photo by Gregory Lorenzutti.
Supported by The Keir Foundation and Creative Australia
Critical Path respectfully acknowledges the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, the traditional owners of the land where this event will take place.