The sky’s the limit. Literally.
Gareth Hart has been making his performance spaces larger for each of his celebrated dance productions. For ‘Ellipsis’ in 2012 it was a 2 1/2 metre cube, a tiny, wee, confined space. Then for ‘Symphony of Strange’ in 2013, he went big and into a cavernous expanse of warehouse.
“And then, what else?” he pondered.
“The horizon? That would be as far as I could push it.”
And so it comes to pass that his Adelaide Festival Fringe production of ‘Excavate’ will have the horizon as its backdrop.
The daring Melbourne-based dancer is performing on a rooftop in Adelaide’s CBD - timing his shows so that they can glow in the fading light of sunset.
Hart’s previous Fringe show have been five-star hits, one nominated Best Dance and the other cited for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance in the Australian Dance Awards.
Hart says he has been ruminating for a long time over this one and it is his boldest yet.
His spacial concept is quite thrilling. With the horizon behind him and the sky above, he is reaching down from the rooftop terrace through the layers of the building and into the depths of history and mystery below.
“I am digging up spaces and digging up the past with my own body,” he says.
The past comes in several forms. One is pure history - the darker sides of Adelaide’s past, things Adelaideans might not want to talk about. The other side is a physical past which is borne of dance expression, Hart’s vocabulary of movement.
Hart’s performances are improvisational but informed through training and based on thorough studio work. “They are spontaneously choreographed from conscious choices made in the studio,” he explains.
“There is a structure, a form to be followed.”
His movements are intricate, his sounds, created in collaboration with Edward Willoughby, are delicate. And beyond that lie the evocation of these themes of excavated past.
Hart gained the spirit of his quest on five or so past visits to Adelaide and has been researching online and with National Archives in Canberra. His rooftop setting will feature small screens revealing chosen still imagery and archival footage.
“I have gorgeous old photos of iconic Adelaide families along with a few news reports or murders, some politics, and gorgeous footage of an early school,” he enthuses.
“The changing face of Adelaide colonisation.”
The dancer hopes to suggest that the things we don’t talk about may indeed help us to understand our future in some way.
The shows are intimate. Being performed atop the Edments Building in the city, they can accommodate audiences of only 25 at a time. They must meet in the street below before the 7pm performances. And performances are only from March 3 - 7.
Samela Harris
When: 3 to 7 Mar
Where: Edments Building Rooftop
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
More information: GarethHart.net
