If_Was_

Dance North Stephanie Lake If Never was Now photo by Amber HainesDelve into the fanciful and illusory worlds of two extraordinary choreographers, Stephanie Lake and Ross McCormack in Dancenorth’s most recent double bill, If _ Was _ at The Substation from 29 June 2016.

If_Was_ is both an investigation into choreographic practice and a sensory representation of each artist’s personal library of lived experience generated in response to a strict framework of equal limitations.

The challenge was set by Dancenorth Artistic Director Kyle Page, for each artist to select sound from the one sound score, create costumes from one pattern, utilise lighting from one design and work to a set duration. It is within these parameters that If_Was_ comes to life.

Stephanie and Ross are two of the most extraordinary choreographic talents of our time and they have each generated something profoundly different in response to the equal limitations,” said Page.

Multi award-winning Australian choreographer, dancer and director of Stephanie Lake Company, Stephanie describes her new work, If Never was Now 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,” says Lake. “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.”

New Zealand born choreographer and dancer Ross McCormack’s new work, If Form Was Shifted is a collaboration between McCormack, Dancenorth dancers and composer Robin Fox to achieve a virtuosic 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,” says McCormack. “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.”

McCormack has worked extensively with Alain Platel at Les Ballets C de la B in Belgium. Other companies include the Douglas Wright Dance Company, the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Australia’s Chunky Move, Australian Dance Theatre and Lucy Guerin INC and Dancers.

Dancenorth is a contemporary dance company based in Townsville, making new, bold, critically acclaimed work. As a major champion of the arts, Dancenorth balances a dynamic regional presence with a commitment to creating compelling professional contemporary dance that tours the globe, development opportunities for local dancers and choreographers and national and international residencies and exchanges.

If_Was_
The Substation, 1 Market Street, Newport
Performances: 29 June – 2 July 2016
Bookings: www.thesubstation.org.au

For more information, visit: www.dancenorth.com.au for details.

Image: Stephanie Lake’s If Never was Now – photo by Amber Haines