Paul and Nicole speak with Nicole Calabrese, a third year AC Arts dance student who is part of the team of dancers in the upcoming collaboration between AC Arts, Australian Dance Theatre and Artist, Thom Buchanan.
Nicole spoke about the show, the exciting opportunity to be involved and what it is like to be a student at AC Arts.
After an extensive European tour, world-renowned Australian Dance Theatre returns home to the Adelaide stage with the world premiere of its new work, Worldhood, by Garry Stewart featuring Thom Buchanan with TAFE SA Adelaide College of the Arts, from 10 – 13 August at Her Majesty’s Theatre.
Australian Dance Theatre has thrilled audiences across the world with its ingenious choreography, extraordinary athleticism and commitment to producing enthralling and provocative dance. From Paris to New York, London to Adelaide, Australian Dance Theatre continues to amaze audiences.
For Worldhood, Artistic Director Garry Stewart again creates a rare experience that stretches the boundaries of dance as we know it. For this world premiere, the phenomenal Australian Dance Theatre dancers will unite with final year TAFE SA Adelaide College of the Arts students and award winning visual artist Thom Buchanan.
“Worldhood explores the nexus between live drawing and live dance in relation to structures in architecture and in nature,” explains Garry Stewart.
"This is the first time
I've worked with a live visual artist in any of my works. What struck me immediately was the inherent connection between dance and mark making. Like drawing, dance comfortably occupies an abstracted space but can also evoke representations of the world around us. Thom Buchanan's images are made through a vigorous physicality and performativity that permits them to be framed within the context of dance. As part of his performance he also employs the erasure of images which mirrors the impermanence and ephemeral nature of dance."
The combination of Australian Dance Theatre and AC Arts dancers will represent the largest performing ensemble on stage for Australian Dance Theatre work in more than a decade. The larger ensemble provides an additional dimension to ADT’s choreography as well as an extraordinary opportunity for the AC Arts students.
“The opportunity for AC Arts dance and technical production students to work with ADT on Worldhood is unbelievable,” says Christie Anthony, Creative Director of AC Arts.
“I expect that this project will be the envy of the national dance training community. We are extremely lucky to have ADT based in Adelaide to enable students to work together closely with the best contemporary dance company in the nation during their final year of training. A vital aspect of the collaboration is the mentoring and career-specific advice that ADT is providing to our students, to help them equip themselves for paid work in the industry, once they complete their training.”
Visual artist Thom Buchanan, draws live on stage with the dancers and plays an integral role in Worldhood, creating expansive and energetic drawings on a monumental scale. Thom is no stranger to live drawing, accompanying bands and DJs with his drawing in Adelaide and across Australia. A number of video projections of Thom’s works also feature in this year’s SALA Festival.
There is no doubt there are a many parallels between dance and drawing but the challenge for Thom in Worldhood is the nature of replicating the artistic process for each performance.
“Both dance and drawing involve movement, driven by energy and emotion. Garry and I have found we even use similar language to talk about dance and drawing. But while dancers are trained to replicate the same movement time and time again, drawing is usually done at the artist’s own pace and the result is a once off experience. This is an interesting part of the collaboration for me – dynamic and subject to change, the drawing allows the audience to experience, moment by moment, the thousands of visual decisions that are distilled in the drawing. ” says Thom.
Whether you’re a fan of dance or visual art, the fusion between the two artforms live on stage will be a new experience for audiences.
Worldhood is playing at Her Majesty’s Theatre from 10-13 August.
Photo: Nicole Calabrese. Taken by Krysz Antal
