ADT returns to Melbourne

 Australian Dance Theatre is making a long-awaited return to Melbourne this August with Garry Stewart’s Be Your Self. After the full-scale work has been performed in Melbourne, a reduced scale version of the work, will be toured regionally, taking in Townsville (QLD), Lismore (NSW), Toowoomba (QLD), Parramatta (NSW), Frankston (VIC) and Mildura (VIC).

Be Your Self asks the question, what makes you, you? In this work ADT artistic director Stewart examines the ways in which one’s body is central to one’s identity and that one’s notion of the ‘self’ is, indeed, located in one’s body. Emotions, moods and psychological states are just as much a component of one’s physical reality as any other bodily function including heartbeat or respiration. “In thinking about the question ‘who am I?’ the body is the most appropriate place to start,” Stewart explains. “It’s not just a nebulous concept we carry around in our heads. The discussion of selfhood and identity is so relevant
to dance and Be Your Self cross pollinates ideas from philosophy, neuroscience and psychology into an entertaining and action packed whole.”

A highly physical work, Be Your Self is set to a wildly unpredictable electronic score by Brendan Woithe. The set design, which forms the backdrop for a surreal video projection. was created in collaboration with architectural firm Diller, Scofido + Renfro. The movements of the dancers are accompanied by an actor who delivers a series of monologues, wondering at the marvels of the human body.

Be Your Self premiered in 2010 and has toured extensively overseas.

For more info, including links to bookings, click here.