JUNE / JULY 20 17 | W W W.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU6 / INSTEP NEWS | EVENTS | FUNCTIONS | VENUES | BEST OF THE WEB
CHUNKY Move has been invited to
perform at the Theater der Welt 2017, an
international theatre festival dedicated to
works that push forward the development of
the performing arts, held triennially in
Hamburg, Germany. The company will
present Anouk van Dijk’s An Act of Now at
the festival, from 2-4 June. Theatre de Welt
2017 will see 40 productions from around
the world presented in Hamburg, from a
range of genres, including drama,
performance, dance, literature, visual arts,
film and music.Presented inside a glasshouse with the
audience listening in via headphones, An Act
of Now was created by van Dijk back in 2012,
during her first few months as artistic director
of Chunky Move. “I started to connect the old
with the new, continuing an investigation I
had begun in the Netherlands ref lecting on
my own cultural identity. I now looked ahead
to unknown territory, using familiar stepping-
stones to discover new insights into a society
that is in many ways similar to my own, but
that is at the same time profoundly different;
because of its geography; its inhabitants; its
history; its environment; and because of its
deep connection with the land. Now planted
here – An Act of Now,” explains van Dijk. “In
this collision of emotions, conversations and
movement, An Act of Now found its shape.”
An Act of Now will be performed in
Hamburg by Joel Bray, Peter Cseri, Lauren
Langlois, Alya Manzart, James vu Anh
Pham, Niharika Senapati and Nina Wollny.Chunky travels
THIS July Ochre Contemporary Dance
Company (OCDC), in collaboration with
The Farm, will present the Australian
premiere of Mark Howlett’s Good Little
Soldier, a work that explores the effects of
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on the
families of those aff licted. The work comes to
Perth from a season in Berlin.
Good Little Soldier is a deeply personal
work for Howlett. “In creating Good Little
Soldier my aim was to develop a physical
dance based on my personal experiences of
growing up as the son of a war-damaged
soldier,” he explains. “I wished to investigate
veterans’ common experiences and how it
affects and infects the families of those
aff licted with the burden of PTSD.”
Set in an Australian suburban home,
Good Little Soldier portrays a returnedsoldier struggling to return to normal
family life. He has brought ghosts home
from the war that only he sees. They push
him into paranoid behaviour, encouraging
the subjugation of his wife and son.
Good Little Soldier will see dance makers
Gavin Webber and Grayson Millwood reprise
their Berlin roles of a damaged soldier and the
ghost he has brought home from the front.
The role of the wife and mother will be
played by Co3 artistic director Raewyn Hill.
In bringing the work home, OCDC
intends to investigate Indigenous
perspectives on intergenerational PTSD
after 200 years of trauma. Nyoongar actor/
director/dancer Ian Wilkes will play a second
ghost that has come home from war.
‘Good Little Soldier’ plays Subiaco Arts
Centre 9-23 July. See http://www.ochredance.org.War
damage
Sophie Carter’s Jewellery Box, winner of
Most Innovative Choreography (2016).
Pictured is Carter with Cassandra Spilling.
PHOTO: DOM O’DONNELLChunky Move performing
An Act of Now.
PHOTO: JEFF BUSBY