INDance artist Ashleigh Musk
INDance is Sydney Dance Company’s annual celebration of independent contemporary dance. Showing until 24 August, this year’s program features dance works created and performed by independent Australian artists.
Geraldine Higginson put some questions to one of the contributing choreographers, Ashleigh Musk.
Where did the initial idea/impulse to create SUB come from?
SUB emerged from an ongoing fascination with futuring and exploring scenarios where our planet becomes uninhabitable. In the initial stages, I was thinking about whether the underground space could be a place where we could burrow in order to survive, how we prepare for the future and what we might choose to take with us.
I started researching mining, volcanoes, soil, caves, burial, disposal (amongst many other things) and I got really obsessed with the depth and breadth of this space that we often don’t consider in our daily lives.
What do you hope audiences take away from their experience of SUB at the wharf?
Everywhere we've performed audiences have had different reactions to the work. SUB is such a visual, visceral and aural experience that really invokes the landscapes of the places it was made - particularly the intense, rocky desert of Mparntwe (Alice Springs) and the wet, cavernous mountains of Queenstown (lutruwita) - audiences in those locations could really see the references to their homes.
It will be very interesting to perform SUB in a cityscape, and for an audience that probably lives in an urban environment. I hope they are transported to this new world that is created onstage, and that they leave with a sense of the urgency in relation to the ecological crises we face. I hope that through the brick and mortar of the city, they consider that the ground is constantly shifting beneath their feet, and remember that we coexist with the natural world and in connection with one another.
I believe you've lived and worked in Alice Springs since 2020. How do you sustain your arts practice in regional Australia? Do you think regional/remote dance artists face unique challenges?
Yeah! I’d been coming to the desert to work with GUTS Dance since 2018, and in 2020 made the move to base myself here. Sustaining an arts practice in remote Australia can be challenging, and I’m always balancing ways to work at home with travelling and staying connected to other artists and organisations around the country. I wear a lot of different hats in my practice - not only creating work but also teaching, facilitating, producing, dramaturgy - which is how I can usually make it work.
Living in remote Australia makes you pretty resourceful in finding ways to be an artist that maybe sit outside the norm, and organisations like GUTS are really leading the way in providing platforms to make remote/regional practice more possible. There are unique challenges such as geographic isolation from the broader dance community, but also so much joy in things like a strong connection and engagement from audiences, deep relationships with the small but mighty arts community here and a spaciousness, time and appreciation for the landscapes around you.
How important is the collaborative process with your fellow performers to you as an artist?
For me, the creative process is ALL about collaboration - bringing ideas, thoughts, images, texts, references and sharing those with the other creatives in the room. The artists I’m working with are all incredibly generous, and so much of the process is us in conversation, trying ideas, reflecting, trying again. The original team of SUB worked together for over thre years, and we shared so many experiences through the process which really solidified a trust between us and an ability to take risks knowing we were supporting one another. I really believe this collaboration, connection and trust is visible in the work itself.
Ashleigh Musk's SUB will be on the program beside works by Harrison Ritchie-Jones, Kristina Chan and Sarah Aiken. For more info, go here.
Find out more about GUTS Dance here.
