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Burlesque
Show Our
innocence is shattered when we reach the age of sexual exploration
by the expectations of our world, where we exist as faceless identities.
Can we become comfortable with our ‘differences’? Do
we live them out with guilt, hidden from view, or learn to celebrate
them? Which, if any, lead down the path to depravity? In the end,
does it matter? We are devoured by society and our own indulgences. Boyhood
dreams and aspirations, By Misty Stares (Joshua Percival)
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The Death Show The Death Show is a celebration of all that is dead or dying, ending, resurrecting, rotting or remembering. A ten minute performance art piece produced by Diverse Dance in collaboration with physical theatre artist Daniel Gorski, Designed for The Upholstery Contemporary Arts exhibition in Cairns, June 2007. Check the Upholstery web site www.theupholstery.com
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The Boatman The installation / performance explores the interrelationship of man made objects with the natural environment and how these are interpreted as symbols of human experience. The imagery is evocative of world myths including those of mythic ferrymen, fishermen, Buddhist Boddhisattva imagery and the Hindu idea of a 'tirtha' or spiritual crossing between worlds that has its origin in imagery of crossing an ocean or flooded river. As such it can be interpreted as a symbol of birth and death. The Boatman is an installation / performance work designed for the On Edge Festival held in Cairns during July 2006 and for the Pacific Edge Regional Galleries Conference in Mackay during September 2006. Produced in collaboration with Kevin Mayo and Sue Hayes, soundscape by Mark Edwards. Funded by the Regional Arts Development Fund, supported by The Tanks Arts Centre.
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Teeter Teeter is a timeless, sensitive piece, where a community of women have been without their seafaring partners for many months. The ebb and flow of their longing bring them to the brink of desire, until the homecoming releases a flood of emotion. Performed
at The Tanks Art Centre for 'Deep Tank 5' and at the Cairns Centre
of Contemporary Art December 2005 for the Julie Wilson-Foster
exhibition 'Petri Dish Pink'.
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Sample Society Designed for ‘Spark’ as part of Australian Dance Week 2005. The electronic sound track being the basis for the movement composition, which was inspired by the concept of belonging to and/or opting out of society's ordered system. The bar code design symbolises conformity to mass production, mass consumption. Every now and then, a sample of the individual expression is revealed before being consumed by the hegemonic rhythm. The sound track was devised by local sound artist and Diverse Dance performer Mark Edwards. “The Spark events are great for Cairns, they are the only place experimental electronic artists can express themselves freely without commercial pressure” says Mark.
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Australian
Dance Week 2005 As
part of Dance Week Diverse Dance hosted an interactive workshop
for children at the Tanks Art Centre. The workshop included performance,
movement skills, body percussion, warm up and relaxation exercises
in a 3 hour session. The Island a performance piece inspired by the symbiotic relationship between the ocean and an island. Two stilt walkers and five dancers form two groups to represent the interaction of the elements of water and earth.
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Uberschwartz Music
video produced in Cairns by Diverse Dance member Mark Edwards. The
video is a story about a distant all female planet that has just
received the first TV transmissions from Earth. Shocked by what
they see a team of Uber Girls beam down to save the day. Only problem
is they are 69 years too late and on the wrong side of the planet! |
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The Seven Minute Relationship The Seven Minute relationship is an emotionally charged dance exploring the discovery and loss of love through contemporary movement, tableau and voice. This
expressive performance piece runs for seven minutes and has been
designed as a roving/repeat show.
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Roving Performers Diverse Dance has been creating installation/performance works for Cairns audiences at community and corporate events since 2004. For more information check our sister site mixedlollies.com
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Japan Week 2005 To the sounds of taiko drums, black and white figures combine together with visual artists to produce a kinaesthetic metaphor for Yin and yang. Seiji
Yamauchi and Diverse Dance combined forces to create a ten minute
performance art piece for Japan Week 2005 at the Tanks Art Centre.
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Deep
Tank 5 - Tanks Arts Centre 2005
The Tanks spaces are open to inspired set designs and for Deep Tank 5 it was given a relaxed intimacy by arrangements of lounge chairs where the audience could mingle and view performances. Visual stimulation was provided through video projections by Julie Wilson-Foster, ice sculpture by Arcocrystallis, and light box displays by Deanna Maich and Gabrielle Cooney. The performances opened with a soundscaped movement piece of three women flowing in elegant imitation of seaweed. Sound and video projection were integral to the ambience of this and most performances of the evening, uniting the diverse explorations of the watery theme with a sophisticated multimedia layering. Members of Diverse Dance performed five dances including the opening piece. Their second piece, Bags, contained a strong environmental statement against the use of plastic shopping bags and their effects on marine life. This social consciousness was maintained in their study of mass production and consumer conformity entitled Sample Society. This articulate dance featured the ensemble of ten dancers utilizing both body and voice in imitation of electronic harmony. The full ensemble was also present for Teeter in which women await the return of their men folk from the sea. However by the look of the tight sailor pants, singlets and jaunty sailor caps sported by their men they may have been out of luck. Joking aside, it was a pleasure to see this number of dancers working together and producing carefully choreographed and intelligent pieces. The last piece by members of Diverse Dance featured a comic, take-your–leg-off trio of sharks prowling through the crowd. Bonemap have repeatedly treated Cairns audiences to sophisticated multi-media images and performance for over half a decade. For Deep Tank 5 they projected images onto a 5m high cone of translucent fabric while a pair of dancers experimented with the interior space. Projections included live images of the dancers inside, text, and scenes of water and oil drums. These agitated images played with notions of containment, leakage, and pollution making clever reference to the performance space. Of these projections, the most poignant, providing both relief from the profusion of text and images and an ornate disquiet, was a video projection of a Siamese fighting fish lit huge upon the screen. Three performances which were not so invested with multi-media were an exquisite percussion performance by Guiseppe Vizzone, a piece by Zane Saunders and Ian Connolly, and spoken word by Simon Tait. Saunders and Connolly explored indigenous experience framed by the banality of a suburban landscape of dust, beer bottles, paving blocks, and power tools. A place where water is mediated by the garden hose and the wading pool. An increasing environmental reality as thirsty Cairns suburbs continue to crawl outwards. Simon Tait was concerned with our hunger for seafood and the effects of commercial fishing. His bizarre performance poetry was a comic cross between a bush poetry reading of Henry Lawson and the rhyming of Dr. Seuss. One of the final performances of the evening was a beautifully costumed dance by Sublime Shakti after which the dance floor opened and the DJ took over. Deep Tank 5 was a tribute to both the talented diversity of the Cairns art scene and the commitment of those involved.
Kevin Mayo - Arts Nexus Review |
