DIGITAL INTERCHANGE FESTIVAL 2019-20

Selected Texts: Why Dance Matters Now

Critical Path, in partnership with Delving into Dance, invited those engaged in dance (in whatever capacity) to share thoughts as to why dance matters now…

Together we have commissioned five texts for publication from Australian artists and writers for the digital Interchange Festival 2019. The artists that present their work are Adrianne Semmens & Jennifer Eadie, Alison Plevey, Ira Ferris, Simon Ellis & Shaun McLeod and Tsuki Becoming.

The artists’ contributions play with form and style and open the practice of dance up to new audiences.

BIO

Adrianne Semmens & Jennifer Eadie

Adrianne Semmens is a dance practitioner with experience working across the arts, education and community sectors. Born in Adelaide, Adrianne is a descendant of the Barkindji People of North Western NSW and a graduate of NAISDA Dance College and Adelaide College of the Arts. Identity and place continue to be reoccurring themes within Adrianne’s practice, investigated throughout her own choreographic explorations and community based projects.

Jennifer Eadie is a writer and artist, living and working on Kaurna yarta. Currently, she is a lecturer in the Aboriginal Pathway Program at the University of South Australia and Writer in Residence at The Mill Adelaide. Her creative practice explores notions of community and connection to place. Her research is focused on ecological rights and protection of Country.

Alison Plevey

Alison Plevey is Party Leader of the Canberra based Australian Dance Party, which began in 2016. She is a dance and physical theatre artist, performance maker, youth dance practitioner and arts advocate who has a conceived of over 30 projects in the ACT and Regional NSW. Driven by place and site, her work playfully inspires thinking, action and change around urgent issues of our time through the universal communicator – the moving body.

Ira Ferris

Ira Ferris is Zagreb-born, Sydney-based curator, writer, podcaster, and cultural producer. She is a co-Artistic Director of Artemis Projects working between Australia and Europe. Her curatorial interests are broad but tend to gravitate towards conceptual art practices. As former contemporary dancer she is interested in and inspired by somaesthetics and the way our bodies navigate and experience the exhibition space.

Simon Ellis & Shaun McLeod

Simon Ellis is a New Zealand born dancer who is now based in London. His artistic and choreographic work takes different forms – performance, screen and writing – and is bound together by various interests including memory, power, improvisation, and the nature of collaboration.

Shaun McLeod is a dancer, choreographer and academic who lectures at Deakin University, Melbourne. He is interested in the affective situation of dance improvisation and performance, as well as exploring alternative audience/performer relationships.

Tsuki Becoming

Tsuki Becoming is trained in classical ballet from age five, graduating from Australian Ballet School in 2008. She has danced with companies and freelance projects in Israel, Melbourne and Berlin from 2009-2016. She is now a Ballet and Ashtanga Yoga Teacher, and Performance Artist based in Berlin.

This project is funded with the support of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, as well as vital audience contributions.