The founders and directors of KAGE, Kate Denborough and Gerard Van Dyck have announced that the dance theatre company will be closing after its next production, Caught in the Middle, which will premiere in Scandinavia next year.
“There have been many changes in arts funding over the last 12 months and we have had to make some difficult decisions. We have loved every minute of KAGE and are indebted to our audiences and supporters,” said Denborough and Van Dyck in a letter to supporters. “Due to the change in market and funding conditions… it is no longer possible for us to continue KAGE in its current form. We are now planning for the next phase of our individual careers and collaborations with each other and others.”
Kage was established by Denborough and Van Dyck in 1997, with the aim of finding new ways to present contemporary dance. “When we founded KAGE, as bright eyed dance graduates, we were full of ambition and were passionate about making a difference,” the pair explain in their letter. “We wanted to upturn the apple cart and prove that dance could be more than just dancers on stage. We collaborated with opera singers, wrestlers, gymnasts and snake handlers, we tackled subjects such as juvenile detention, younger onset dementia, gender bias and racism. We took our work to every corner of Australia inside galleries, theatres, nightclubs and schools. We sought risk and nonconformity, striving for originality at all costs.”
Denborough and Van Dyck ntend to continue making work. “The spirit of KAGE will continue through our individual future collaborations and ideas,” they conclude. “We are enormously grateful to our supporters who have sustained us for 20 years.”
Take a look at a video from the creative development for Caught in the Middle here