DANCE COMMONS
On the cultural commons GSD wants community connectedness to be dynamic, inclusive and cross-generational. We consider that the life we share in common is vital to the life we lead as individuals. Dance Commons is about the joy of dance shared so that audiences and artists can impact the performance experience together, in real time.
Dance Commons offered a 2-hour feedback loop between artists and audience members. This followed a week of creative interaction with a cast of dancers spanning 5 generations and a variety of community groups is shared openly. The performers were aged 0-77years.
Workshops took place each day that Great Southern Dance was in residence in the Studio Theatre July 14-19:
- with key artists from MADE we conducted a Movers & Shakers workshop with clinicians and community participants;
- 2 sessions over two days with parents and infants;
- a ‘Dancepod’ workshop designed expressly for Millennials;
- a large public workshop delivered on-stage by GSD dancers Alya, Gabby and Risa co-leading with dancers Mali and Eli from Sydney Dance Company.
For the performance sharing on Saturday, Great Southern Dance combined an open notes session with an actual performance so that we could invite audience members to experience live dance and design, discuss it with the artists and then view it being performed again.
Sitting at the creative heart of Dance Commons is the intergenerational performance experience Hiero. Meaning ‘sacred’, the Greek word ‘hiero’ is used here to highlight how dancers at different life stages perform together, deeply curious about respective roles, rights, responsibilities and lived experience. Conceived/directed by Felicity Bott with design direction by Paul Wakelam Architect, Hiero is being developed in collaboration with Mature Artists Dance Experience and youth interns who dance with DRILL Performance.
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Performance Images
Photography: Rosie Hastie.
