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Home : Program : Dance |
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The Age I'm In - Australia
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| Time : |
Oct 30(Fri) 20:00
Oct 31(Sat) 15:00 [CA] |
| Venue : |
Arko Arts Theater Main Hall |
| Ticket Price : |
General R : 50,000 won S : 40,000 won
Y/S R : 30,000 won S : 20,000 won |
| Choreographer : |
Kate Champion |
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The latest digital imagery used to unveil the warmth of daily life in an analog manner. A new language is revealed through the portable screens that show digilog; a mixture of analog and digital aspects of performing art. Choreographer, Kate Champion is the winner of the renowned Helpmann Award for Best Visual or Physical Theatre Production and Best Female Dancer. |
"what age do you live in?"
Is this really modern dance? Or is this drama? The Age I‘m In treads across the threshold of chaos by crisscrossing the boundaries between genres and shedding the stereotypical image of drama. Premiered at festivals in Sydney and Adelaide in 2008, this work exposes the present condition of the Australian society with depth and wit. Under the directorship of Kate Champion, recipient of the Helpmann Award in 2002 for best female dancer, dancers from the young age of fifteen to the grand age of eighty convey their ordinary stories of family and human relations. These stories of five generations are shown simultaneously using a multitude of languages that accentuates the conflicts and lack of communication between generations. By making use of the latest audio-visual technology and creative body language, their stories are cleverly juxtaposed with an onscreen interview of eighty people. The moment the interviewees start talking on screen, the dancers on stage start to lip-sync everything they say. A new image language is also revealed on stage through the small screens the dancers are carrying that show a combination of animation and detailed nude scenes. The performance reaches its finale when rain pours down on to the stage leaving behind a deep resonance and capturing the full intensity of the moment.
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‘The Age I’m In’ kicks off with a review of how the human body ages with the flow of time. Force Majeure Dance Company seeks to express a philosophical profundity through the bodies of dancers, a variety of screens, the voices of interviewees and simple, yet powerfully hypnotic lighting. The voices of the interviewees are the voices of the dancers on stage. The meticulous lip-syncing and mime of the dancers result in chaos. Only when the audience members sense the mismatch between the young robust dancer and the voice of the shy young girl, do they realize that everything is an act. This intended mismatch and simple trick effectively entices and draws in the audience and their response is immediate.
The screen is an innovative medium that serves as a transparent camera equipped with a hidden function that reveals the shocking truth about the human body.
The dance is recorded and this recording works as a raw element that enshrines the performance with a sense of the here and now, unlike the nature of the medium to simply record and replay. The dancers move to dynamic sounds with elasticity and flexibility to represent the young generation. The choreography grasps the psychology of the rebellious teens towards the elderly who are sensitive about and fearful of aging. In itself, it is a silent interpretation of life. The bodily movements of the dancers are linked and regurgitated like the Möbius Strip suggests- men and women should pursue co-existence and communication rather than discord and separation.
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| Choreographer |
- Kate Champion
Kate Champion started her professional dance career at the age of sixteen at the Iwanson Dance Company in München, Germany. After three years in München, she returned to Australia in 1981 and worked at the One Extra Company led by director, Kai Tai Chan. Sponsored by the Australia Arts Committee, she studied in New York in 1985. She worked with Dance North in Townsville, Australia, the Australian Dance Theatre in Adelaide, and the DV8 in London, UK. She has taken part in a number of works including The Cost of Living where she served as the rehearsal director and dancer in DV8, one of the most innovative dance groups in the world. In 2002, she set up Force Majeure and presented Same, Same But Different at the Sydney and Melbourne Festivals. The work received the Helpmann Award in 2002 for the Best Visual or Physical Theatre Production. The same year, Champion was named the Best Female Dancer for About Face. |
| Company |
- Force Majeure
Force Majeure has always sought to communicate something unusual about modern life. It uses the human body, as the connecting point for creativity and philosophical negotiating, to dismantle the boundary between art genres. Actors, dancers, designers, writers, visual artists, composers and filmmakers are all members of the dance company. Since its foundation in 2002, the company has received four major international prizes for their two major works, two collaboration projects and one short film. The company was invited to the Lyon Biennale de la Dance. Their latest piece, The Age I'm In, was recently presented at the Sydney and Adelaide Festivals.
http://www.forcemajeure.com.au/ |
| Staff |
Set/Light Designer : Geoff Cobham
Artistic Associate : Roz Hervey
Composer/Sound Designer : Max Lyandvert
Costume Designer : Bruce McKinven
Sound Editor : Mark Blackwell
Audio Visual Producer : Tony Melov
Audio Visual Designer : Neil Jensen
Photographer : William Yang
Producer : Karen Rodgers
Production Stage Manager : Martin Langthorne
Tour Manager : Pella Gregory
Stage Manager : Erin Daly |
| Cast |
Brian Harrison, Daniel Daw, Annie Byron, Veronica Neave, Samuel Brent, Marlo Benjamin, Byron Perry, Kirstie McCracken, Vincent Crowley, Ingrid Weisfelt |
Company Logo :
Assisted by :
Keir Foundation, the Australian Government's Major Festivals Initiative, managed by the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australian Government's arts funding and advisory body, in association with the Confederation of Australian International Arts Festivals Inc, Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts and Sydney Festival
Supported by :
The Australian Government through the Australia International Cultural Council, an initiative of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
 
 
Reviews
"...funny and utterly uplifting ...filled with beauty, constructed of simple and innocent moments of truth, hope and pure emotion."
- Alex Lelak, Daily Telegraph
"Is this really contemporary dance? Is it really theatre? Does it matter? It's Kate Campion's Force Majeure and its brilliant."
- Dianne Simmonds, Stage noise
"There is an overwhelming sense of universality that elements of what is being expressed could apply to almost any era in many languages."
- Jill Sykes, Sydney Morning Herald
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