For next year's Asia TOPA festival, Blakdance is presenting a new work called Bunyi Bunyi Bumi, which entreats us to "hear and embody the sounds of the earth – of Country – carrying the stories of shared kinships across the Asia-Pacific region".
This commission is co-directed by leading First Nations figure raymond d. blanco and Dr. Priya Srinivasan, a Melbourne-based choreographer/dancer who is, among other things, the artistic director of Sangam: Performing Arts Platform and Hub.
Bunyi Bunyi Bumi unites Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Indonesian artists "in a powerful rebuke of colonial amnesia" and promises to replace "tired narratives of trade and Empire with truth, resistance, and resilience". The season will take place at Bunjil Place, Narre Warren, Vic, from February 20 to 23, 2025.
Another Asia TOPA dance presentation is Melbourne’s genre-defying dance company, Chunky Move, which will premiere its ambitious “stage spectacle”, U>N>I>T>E>D, at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl from February 27 to March 2.
For this work, Chunky Move is combining with the Javanese experimental techno, Gabber Modus Operandi, Bali-based street wear label Future Loundry and the world leaders in animatronic design, Creature Technology Co. An exceptional line-up of six dancers will invite audiences onto the Bowl’s stage to experience Artistic Director Antony Hamilton’s “conceptual interpretation of machine mysticism”.
U>N>I>T>E>D is the latest in Hamilton’s series of “speculative future”, following Token Armies and Yung Lung, which both incorporate a major sculptural collaboration.
For these and other dance events in the festival, go here.