Huge dance work opens Brisbane Festival

The Brisbane Festival kicks off on Friday and one of the biggest events on the program is the premiere of an immersive dance/theatre work.

Called Salamander, it brings together celebrated UK creative partnership Maxine Doyle and Es Devlin with Australasian Dance Collective’s artistic director, Amy Hollingsworth.

Salamander is tailored to fit an unconventional venue: L Shed, a huge industrial warehouse in the burgeoning riverfront Northshore precinct. Salamander will be one of the biggest productions ever made by Brisbane Festival.

“The space is epic," says Doyle, "but we are choosing to keep audience numbers small so people can be close to the work and personally experience the art and the dancer."

The location was selected to spotlight original sculptures by Devlin, a renowned contemporary artist whose work has appeared at the Tate Modern, V&A, The Serpentine Gallery, The Louvre and the MET Museum. She has also crafted stage sculptures for Beyonce, The Weeknd and U2, The Royal Opera House, National Theatre, La Scala and The Met Opera as well as the 2022 Super Bowl featuring Dr Dre, Kendrick Lamar and Eminem and the 2012 London Olympic Closing Ceremony.

Maxine Doyle, a Laban Choreographic Centre alumnus, is best known for her multi-award-winning immersive dance theatre works as artistic director of Punchdrunk since 2002. She has been in Australia once before, in 2019, when she created Sunset for Strut Dance for the Perth Festival.

Doyle says that Salamander is partly inspired by J.G. Ballard’s 1962 post-apocalyptic novel The Drowned World and the 2021 satirical climate politics film, Don’t Look Up.

“I hope this work is provocative, I hope it inspires people to think and feel and act – whether that’s picking up the phone to call their family or signing a petition. . . ." she says.

'Salamander' runs from September 1 to 24. For more information, go here.