Dancenorth to play home and away

This week Dancenorth will premiere a double bill entitled “If_Was_” in Townsville. It’s the first stop on a tour that will take in Mackay, Proserpine and Brisbane before heading interstate to Melbourne.

“If_Was_” has an innovative premise. Dancenorth’s artistic director, Kyle Page, has asked choreographers Stephanie Lake and Ross McCormack to each select sound from one sound score, create costumes from one pattern, utilise lighting from one design and work to a set duration. “If _ Was _ is a big dance experiment, we set a clear framework for Stephanie and Ross and literally invited each of them to fill in the blanks,” remarks Page.

Stephanie Lake describes her new work as a surreal hive of buzzing life reflecting the beauty and brutality of the natural world. "From marching automatons to wild hybrid creatures, this work and the dancers within it are continually transmuting and being affected by their rapidly changing conditions. It's about survival, symbiosis and rebirth. Through intricate choreography and vivid imagery the dancers incubate a strange world of their own making with a desperate forward momentum," she says.

Ross McCormack’s new work, entitled If Form Was Shifted, is a reflection of the thought process structured through group manipulation. “What interests me is to watch the body at odds with its purpose, this is where I try to orientate most of my movement. I see the body as a device grappling with its complexities and place, how it rather unnaturally manipulates itself is somehow spectacular yet also pathetic,” he explains.

Tour dates:
9-11 June Dancenorth, Townsville
15 June Mackay Entertainment Centre
16 June Proserpine Entertainment Centre
23-25 June Judith Wright Centre, Brisbane
29 June – 2 July The Substation, Melbourne

More info, including booking info: www.dancenorth.com.au