[Time out] Dance Massive 2015

A celebration of contemporary dance featuring 19 world-class productions.

Melbourne’s biennial and internationally renowned dance festival features 19 productions – 14 of which are world premieres – from some of Australia’s finest contemporary dancers and choreographers. The 2015 program invites inquisitive minds to traverse a maze of choreographic paths through wide varieties of dance styles and traditions.

Don’t miss Melbourne company Chunky Move’s Depth of Field: a work that explores movement through a metropolis with a shifting tempo. It’s choreographed by Chunky Move’s internationally acclaimed artistic director Anouk van Dijk. The company has a reputation for producing bold, daring works, and Depth of Field promises to be no exception.

Another highlight is Do You Speak Chinese?: a piece by Melbourne dancer and choreographer Victoria Chiu, who was inspired by the ongoing preconception (based on her appearance) that she speaks Chinese. In collaboration with dancer Kristina Chan, she has devised a beautifully choreographed performance that plays with the many ways our bodies speak for us, often before we’ve even had a chance to open our mouths.

Like Chiu’s performance, many of the pieces challenge our perceptions of the world around us. Award-winning ensemble Rawcus – which features artists who are physically impaired – have produced Catalogue. The tender, funny and philosophical work calls into question the celebration of diversity and how it may only cause further separation. Meeting uses 64 robotic percussion instruments to show how bodies enter states of heightened physical and mental agency. Australian choreographer and dancer Prue Lang has created SPACEPROJECT, which looks at how time is translated into space within our daily lives. Indigenous choreographer Vicki Van Hout uses her powerful new dance theatre work Long Grass to raise awareness about the overlooked potential of homeless Aboriginal people. Force Majeure’s Nothing to Lose aims to challenge and the dominant perception of what a dancer’s body should look like, and seminal Australian choreographer and dancer Shelley Lasica will showcase her latest work, Solos for Other People.

There’ll even be an interactive dance session with a difference: sign up for Fitter. Faster. Better and gear up for a boot camp run entirely by children. Your little ‘personal trainer’ will change the way you perceive your body in motion, and will stick with you until you get their routine right.

You can see the full list of shows on the Dance Massive website.

Image: Malthouse and Victoria Chiu will present “Do You Speak Chinese?”
ORIGINAL SOURCE: TimeOut