Dance for the climate
Western Australian choreographer Annette Carmichael has brought together a team of 25 artists working across dance, sound and design to create a vast and ambitious dance work called The Stars Descend.
The work is performed in five instalments, in five different sites, across a tract of land 1000km in length, in the south corner of Western Australia. It tells a new story about Australia’s climate emergency and the power of interconnected action to halt climate change.
Commencing on March 17, each performance happens in a beautiful outdoor location that showcases the biodiversity of the area. The audience can watch a single chapter or travel for 16 days and witness all five instalments.
Choreographers joining the team include a number of exceptional First Nations artists. Janine Oxenham was most recently choreographer on Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company’s hit show, Panawathi Girl. Simon Stewart is a graduate of NAISDA and lecturer at WA Academy of Performing Arts. Rachael Colmer has performed in a number of Carmichael’s previous works while Torres Strait Islander dance artist Sonya Stephen rounds out the team with extensive experience in community consultation.
They are joined by renowned Australian choreographer, Chrissie Parrott, Australian Dance Award winner, Adelina Larsson Mendoza, and former member of New Zealand’s Atamira Dance Company, Pare Randall. CO3 dancer, Russell Thorpe, is also critical to the performance, joining Janine Oxenham as one of two soloists who perform as the “stars”, alongside large casts of community performers.
The community ensembles have been drawn from a diverse mix of regional people, including farmers, scientists, conservationists, nurses, and artists. The ultimate goal of the project is to highlight the significance of the protection and revegetation of a 1000km wildlife pathway called Gondwana Link, which stretches from Wooditjup (Margaret River) on the West Coast to Garlgula (Kalgoorlie) in WA’s interior.
The project has been in development since 2020 and has resulted in the creation of a methodology for delivering arts projects called Distributed 15. It delivers on-the-job training and development for regional producers and artists, while also improving the well-being of regional communities through increased participation in creative activity.
More information go here.
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