WHO: Tasdance
WHAT: Tasdance’s upcoming main-stage season evolve : revolve featuring new works from these two sensational young choreographers Liesel Zink and Gabrielle Nankivell.
WHEN: Launceston season 26-28 May 2016, Hobart season 2-3 June 2016 (More details at bottom of this release)
WHERE: Earl Arts Centre, Launceston and Theatre Royal Hobart.
evolve : revolve brings politics, audacity and humour to the stage
Tasdance’s newest production couldn’t come at a more appropriate time given current happenings in Australian politics. This double bill features two works created especially for Tasdance by some of Australia’s best choreographic talent Gabrielle Nankivell and Liesel Zink.
Liesel Zink’s work Plain English is especially relevant given the upcoming Federal election – it puts a microscope on the way Australian politicians speak; the tactics and techniques they use to communicate to the public via the 24 hour news cycle. On the development process, Liesel says “As a starting point for the work, we have deconstructed recent interviews and speeches from federal politicians, using the rhythm, patterns, slogans and stutters to build a choreographic work that takes on a life of its own. Audience members will recognize words, sounds and gestures that they see on a daily basis from our politicians”
Nankivell’s work Thorn takes the audience in a very different direction. Drawing a wavering line between reality and fantasy, the work is a small study of humans, nature and human nature. Nankivell invites the audience to ponder a slowly shifting landscape. She says “The performers draw deeply on thought, imagination and sensory perception as they travel through the choreography. As they do this, their bodies become the landscape of the work. Between the performers and the audience floats shared perception – provoking questions around not just what, but how we experience”.
This will be Artistic Director, Felicity Bott’s first Tasdance season, and she sees it as confirmation of Tasdance’s commitment to contemporary dance excellence. She says ‘In these new works, theTasdance company members put their bodies on the line to explore human behaviour and contemporary politics. Physically articulate and powerfully instinctive, the performances by Bec Jones, Josh Thomson, Alana Everett, Alya Manzart and Rob Tinning are brimming with vitality.
ABOUT THE CHOREOGRAPHERS
Liesel Zink
Brisbane based dance artist Liesel Zink’s practice is heavily influenced by psychology and sociology research. Her practice seeks to rigorously question and reveal the meaningful complexities of social behaviour. Her choreographic style is derived from her research into body language, drawing from disciplines of drama, sound, science and psychology in order to effectively communicate a concept. Liesel is currently researching the act of protest, questioning its effectiveness in contemporary Western cultures
Gabrielle Nankivell
Award winning Gabrielle Nankivell (2015 Liedtke Foundation Fellow) performs, makes and teaches dance with the same adventurous spirit by which she lives. Her goal is to ignite the imagination of audiences and create continuing avenues of conversation through performance and collaboration. Gabrielle’s performance and collaboration credits are a wide-ranging mix of internationally renowned companies and artists. Honing her career in Europe, she has worked with the Belgian artists Alexander Baervoets and Ultima Vez/Wim Vandekeybus.
ABOUT TASDANCE
Since 1981, Tasdance has embedded professional contemporary dance excellence in the cultural life of Tasmania as art form, career pathway and accessible cultural experience. A respected regional contemporary dance company with national and international reach, Tasdance collaborates to invent dance-for-our-times and to inspire the community to participate.
DATES, PRODUCTION …
evolve:revolve
Launceston, Earl Arts Centre,
May 26, 27, 28 – 8:00pm, May 27 – 1:00pm (schools matinee)
Bookings: www.theatrenorth.com.au or 6323 3666
Ticket Prices – Full $35, Concession $25
Hobart, Theatre Royal,
June 2, 3 – 8:00pm, June 3 – 1:00pm (schools matinee)
Bookings: www.theatreroyal.com.au or 6233 2299
Ticket prices: Full from $30, Concession $25.
www.tasdance.com.au/evolve-revolve
Jane Forrest
