AN UNMISSABLE FESTIVAL OF DANCE
MELBOURNE 24 SEPT – 2 OCT
This September, dance companies from around Australia will gather at Arts Centre Melbourne for a festival experience like no other.
DanceX is a brand new, two-part festival conceived and curated by The Australian Ballet’s Artistic Director David Hallberg that will showcase the depth, range and diversity of the nation’s dance community. Bringing audiences brand new commissions, Australian premieres and excerpts from some of the most popular dance works of the last year, DanceX is an unmissable experience for culture-lovers of all kinds.
Eight companies – The Australian Ballet, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Sydney Dance Company, Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin Inc, Australian Dance Theatre, Queensland Ballet and West Australian Ballet – will perform in two parts, marking the first coming-together of these companies in many years.
The Australian Ballet will perform in both parts, presenting the Australian premiere of Johan Inger’s comic, romantic dance theatre piece I New Then, set to songs by Van Morrison; Inger, a Swedish choreographer, danced with Nederlands Dans Theater and has made works for leading companies all over Europe.
DanceX is an opportunity for audiences to experience diverse works from Australia’s leading dance companies, celebrating and paying tribute to the richness of Australia’s dance community. As well as initiating and presenting DanceX, The Australian Ballet has commissioned two companies, Chunky Move and Lucy Guerin Inc, to create brand new works.
PART ONE | 24 – 27 SEPTEMBER
The Australian Ballet | New Then A comic, romantic dance theatre piece set to songs by Van Morrison.
Queensland Ballet | Glass Concerto An assemblage of high energy, dynamic and emotional movement, Glass Concerto will captivate and inspire audiences.
Sydney Dance Company | ab [intra] (excerpt) From tenderness to turmoil, ab [intra] is a journey through the intensity of human existence that will command your attention.
Lucy Guerin Inc | How To Be Us* A duet for two women on the limits of freedom.
Bangarra Dance Theatre | Ochres and Walkabout (excerpts) Three powerful, spiritual and grounded excerts from Bangarra’s seminal works Ochres (1995) and Walkabout (2002).
Duration: approx. 146 mins (including two intervals)
PART TWO | 30 SEPTEMBER – 2 OCTOBER
Australian Dance Theatre | The Beginning of Nature (excerpt) The Beginning of Nature explores the complex symphony of overlapping rhythms that constitute the very fabric of nature.
Chunky Move | AB_TA_ Response* AB_TA_Response explores the rhythm of forms between dance and design and considers the dialogue between biological and technological systems.
West Australian Ballet | 4Seasons The stages of life and love – the youth of spring, storms of summer, tenderness of autumn and the aging of winter.
The Australian Ballet | New Then A comic, romantic dance theatre piece set to songs by Van Morrison.
Duration: approx. 124 mins (including two intervals)
*commissioned by The Australian Ballet