NORPA Associate Artist Emma Saunders is in residence in the NORPA Studio this week developing a new solo dance work Dancing With Myself. As part of her research she is inviting guests into the space, including NORPA Associate Director Kirk Page, Josephine Saunders (her mum), and Kimberley McIntyre.
Dancing With Myself is one woman’s journey through space and time, where she has no space, and is completely out of time with what’s around her. This includes an extended abstract solo sequence where she is attempting to choreograph her instinct, and to explore further how movement can reveal its own narrative.
She is warm and welcoming, she dances, she shows off a little, she is out of time with others, she is left behind, she is lost, she is alone. She is manipulated, she is shown tenderness, she is free, she is pushed around, she pushes back, she fights, she is in time, she is in time with others, she is lifted and she has found herself again.
Emma Saunders is an artist, originally from Lismore, who works as a dancer, curator, choreographer and educator. She graduated with a BA in Dance and Grad Dip Ed (Dance/Drama) from the University of Western Sydney. She is interested in the simplicity of dance and the complexity of choreography.
Utilising a visceral, instinctive attack, her work is immediate, often working with humour, everyday movements, repetition, duration and abstraction. She co-created The Fondue Set – a formidable Sydney based dance trio well known for their signature theatricality and comedic style.
Emma was the inaugural Dance Curator at Campbelltown Arts Centre (2008 – 2012), where she co-curated a series of dance projects that examine community, location, exchange, culture, age and the interdisciplinary nature of making dance work.
If you’d like to see Emma’s work in development you can go to a free work-in-progress showing on Friday 16 February – 3.00pm at NORPA Studio – Lismore City Hall, 1 Bounty Street, Lismore. For more information, visit: www.norpa.org.au for details.
Image: Emma Saunders – courtesy of NORPA