APRIL EDITION 2018 - VOLUME 1, ISSUE 3
ARTS & DANCE MAGAZINE
LUCY DOHERTY FROM DREAM TO SCREEN
NYC CELLOPOINTE HOTTEST MELBOURNE DANCE EVENT OF APRIL
THE GREATEST SHOWMAN CHOREOGRAPHER DANCE WRITER CHATS TO THE AUSTRALIAN CHOREOGRAPHER OF GREATEST SHOWMAN ASH WALLEN
BEHIND THE CURTAIN: THE GREATEST SHOWMAN'S AUSSIE CHOREOGRAPHER “The only challenge on set was [ensuring] the cast members were safe doing such technical choreography and stunts. Because it is a musical, everything is timed right to the second. Getting the timing perfect while having to fly around the ring and then sing at the same time is a lot,” explained Ash Dressing choreography on Hugh Jackman was much easier for Ash and director Michael because all three of them have worked together previously on a TV commercial. Ash choreographed a Lipton Iced Tea TVC featuring Hugh Jackman and an entire dancing ensemble running wild in a Tokyo hotel. The commercial is highly mapped-out and choreographed with care, and almost parallels the choreography to The Greatest Showman. “Having worked with Hugh before, I think it is about choreographing what works for him and then what fits well with the music. We would workshop different styles and try a whole lot of different stuff until we found what really worked,” said Ash.
“DOING AN ORIGINAL MUSICAL WAS DEFINITELY A DREAM COME TRUE AND ONE TO TICK OFF THE BUCKET LIST!”
"Working with someone as iconic as Kylie is great because she very much knows what she wants and it always turns into a very collaborative process. Shooting a new video always has added pressure to it and we have to get so much done in such little time but I love working under that kind of pressure,” smiled Ash. Ash admitted working in the UK and US has offered him so many perks and learning curves. “You come across so many other talented Australian performers in those countries. Our director for The Greatest Showman is an Aussie and I must like working with Aussies (Kylie, Hugh),” Ash laughed.
Yet, The Greatest Showman is just one of the many achievements for young Ash Wallen—and certainly something further from his domain. Ash has always been known in the commercial space for television gigs, music videos, and popstar tours. He has also choreographed the all-star cast of Finding Your Feet, which came out around the same time as The Greatest Showman as well as Kylie Minogue’s latest UK performances for her new single ‘Dancing’.
“Doing an original musical was definitely a dream come true and one to tick off the bucket list!”
INSIDE UNDRGRND: WHERE PERFORMANCE MEETS PARTY Say goodbye to the underaged, and hello to UNDRGRND. The Melbourne dance industry will steer from teen jazz hands and ballet slippers to make way for the hottest, steamiest, stickiest night of dance on April 6 at TRAK Lounge Nightclub in Toorak.
" We have a show ready to entertain,” - Jayden Hicks
Both familiar and fresh-faced choreographers will be hitting the stage with their works as well as professional dancers strutting their stuff. There will be special guests, top DJs, industry professionals as dancers from Ballroom, commercial, hip-hop and contemporary backgrounds all gathered in the one room. Choreographers include Kallee Richardson, Dom Cowden, Jordan Charles Herbert, Freya List, Daniel Jaber, Casey Chellew and many more. UNDRGRND was founded by Transit Dance directors Chris Curran and Paul Malek in 2011 with the idea to merge performance and party by hosting a platform for young choreographers to stage their pieces. The creative team welcomes Jayden Hicks as the event producer for 2018 who claims the turn out this year will exceed expectations. “I am so excited about the growth of UNDRGRND in 2018. This has become such a celebrated event within the Melbourne dance industry. This year we are expecting a crowd bigger than ever before! We have a show ready to entertain,” said Jayden Hicks. Yvette Lee is leading the charge as UNDRGRND’s special guest. She has put the opening act together to ensure audiences are dazzled from the very start. According to Yvette, UNDRGRND is one of the first Melbourne events to showcase talent in a social setting. “Until UNDRGRND was conceived there was not a platform for emerging choreographers to put their work onto stage or a community event of this scale in Melbourne that brought our industry together,” said Yvette. “I have always supported this event, as I believe it is a very important platform on both an artistic level and also on a social one. UNDRGRND is a time where we can all come together and celebrate each other’s creativity and spend some social time together!”
CELLOPOINTE
ARTICLE BY SANDRA KLUGE The outstanding quality of the musicians and dancers is definitely one of the core factors of CelloPointe’s success. The company’s work is not so much about creating cutting-edge choreography, as much as it is about truly interweaving dance and music, about “being together, looking at each other, and communicating,” Wiley explains. The choreographers that are chosen to create work for the company are ones that are able to illustrate the music very well. Fostering this kind of connection between musicians and dancers is one of the key objectives that Wiley has in mind for the company. A cellist herself, she loves that in a chamber music ensemble, the players get to know each other very well in the process. The energy within a quartet, for instance, is far different from the anonymity of an entire orchestra, because everyone is communicating with each other all the time, “everyone has a voice in the ultimate outcome.”
It is not only about the musical communication, but also about listening to and looking at each other when playing together. It might even get “very personal when you get to know a group that well.” Their latest concert at the Manhattan Movement And Arts Center on March 25 featured works by choreographers David Fernandez, Barry Kerollis, Gabrielle Lamb, and Patrick O’Brien, as well as musical collaborations with bassist Michael Franz and violinist Kobi Malkin. The alternation of choreographies with music interludes makes the pacing of the show feel effortless and gives it an organic flow. Hearing the musicians tune their instruments before and in-between pieces immediately create a concert atmosphere. As the musicians enter the stage, they fill the room with positive energy, welcoming the audience with kind words.
Dance performances, especially in the ballet and contemporary realm, can be quite abstract and visceral sometimes. Having the music be played live on stage provides a very relatable reason for the movement to emerge. It feels as if the dance becomes physically tangible, with musicians and dancers breathing, swaying, and flowing together. From the first note on, the exceptional quality of all musicians and dancers cannot be ignored. The dynamic violin playing of Kobi Malkin makes us aware that dancers are not the only ones that are physically moved by the music. Michael Franz makes playing the bass seem effortless, as he vivaciously bows and plucks the strings. It is obvious that cellist Peter Wiley is an experienced musician, but that does not prevent him from playing music with youthful enjoyment and a recurring twinkle in his eye. The charismatic piece by young choreographer Patrick O’Brien is set to an almost ambient score
CELLOPOINTE BY SANDRA KLUGE for cello and bass. The spheric soundscape provides a fertile soil for the captivatingly organic movement, which evokes the association of the soloist moving through a mystical forest. David Fernandez’ choreography to Beethoven variations from the Magic Flute is a nicely paced piece that explores the different group dynamics within a trio. “Traci sets the rules, Dona develops them and Anne unites them. Traci moves with the cello line [while] Dona and Anne are on the violin journey, uniting for the lively coda.” This hints yet again at the interconnectedness of music and dancing in the creative work of CelloPointe. Inspired by the Golden Record that Voyager 1 transported into outer space, Gabrielle Lamb’s choreography to Bach’s Dances for a Small Planet transports us into a world of wonder. The two dancers utilize simple gestures, especially the recurring motive of pointing fingers, as a powerful tool to make an invisible object of attention seem tangible. The last dance piece of the show, choreographed by Barry Kerollis to Undecidedly Solo by Zoltan Kodaly, leaves us with a strong impression of the company’s musical sensitivity on all fronts. The three dancers float atop, between, in, and out of the score. Unexpected turns and pauses in the music paired with “spontaneous onstage decisions” keep the dancers actively engaged with the musicians in a way that would be impossible to recreate with prerecorded music.
CelloPointe’s concept makes for a truly cohesive, and thoroughly enjoyable concert/dance experience. It reminds us that art, after all, cannot be tied down to just one genre, but rather, and ideally, unites different means of expression that reflect the multifacetedness of the emotions we encounter in our human experience.
DANCE WRITER
INTERVIEW
LUCY JANE DOHERTY Lucy, you’ve recently been in a TVC for Mersynofen.
Tell me about your role with Energetiks!
Congratulations! It is so exciting that you have been able to put dance into mainstream entertainment.
I love the Energetiks team! I first met them last year as
What was it like on set?
they are the main sponsors for The Dream Dance Company and came in to watch a few rehearsals for the
Thankyou! I have done a little TV work before but this
show we were doing ‘Enter The Vortex’ with Sarah
was my first time doing a TV Commercial. Being on set
Boulter.
was a really cool experience, super relaxed though a little bit daunting being that I was the only person in
They approached me to be a face in their campaign for
front of the camera with a crew of maybe 30-40 people!
their Dance Teacher’s line ‘Atelier’ last year so I was
The choreography was created in two rehearsals
lucky enough to get to go to Melbourne to do the shoot
beforehand with Joel Rassmussen & Rowena Villar who
for the campaign and online catalogue as well! I love
run JTown entertainment. It was a really great process
wearing their clothes as they are such great quality, so
working with them as they are both lovely people to
comfortable and also made in Australia, which is so
work with & were really accommodating to utilising the
amazing!
ways I naturally like to move. You are a member of the Dream Company. Explain How has dance shaped your life?
Marko’s creative process that enables such beauty and precision of movement to occur. What has been your
Dance has made my life so beautiful! It allows me to
fondest memory from TDC so far?
connect with myself and others in deep and powerful ways. I find I am always drawn back to contemporary
I first got involved with The Dream Dance Company last
dance because I love the freedom and expressive
year as part of the cast for Sarah Boulter’s ‘Enter The
nature of it. When I am creating I generally always start
Vortex’. I think each creative process has been different
from the core—the meaning and intention of the piece
for each cast and show because every show has utilised
whether that is a certain feeling I want to express or
a different choreographer. I absolutely loved working
story that I want to share. I try to visualise the concept
with Sarah and learned so much from the process. She
as much as possible first and then lastly I work on
is so kind and so beautiful but has a way of demanding
creating and refining the movement.
so much from her dancers—we worked so hard! And always had things to keep working on and keep improving, which I loved!
SHATTER GOES ON THE ROAD: SPARK YOUTH DANCE COMPANY ON SALE NOW Spark Youth Dance Company is touring their show ‘Shatter’ around the suburbs of Melbourne in midApril after months of rehearsals coordinating an orchestra and a savvy, youthful cast. Spark Youth Dance Company recently performed a historical account of the 1900s Suffragettes movement through contemporary dance with a cast of entirely young people. The lyrical performance is based on a true event of the British suffragette movement, focusing in on groups like the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). Now six months later, Spark Youth Dance Company brings its premier tour of ‘Shatter’ to the outer suburbs of Melbourne, including Geelong and Narre Warren. Spark’s artistic director Alex Dellaportas is the choreographic mind behind ‘Shatter’. Because most of the performers are as young as eight and no older than 25, Alex decided to marry dance with historical education. That was when she came up with this 90minute piece to salute the female rioters and to also shatter ageist expectations of what youth can and cannot perform. Working in harmony with the current world movement to close the gender gap #TimesUp, Alex’s contemporary work could not be more relevant. “I loved the feminist element to the story when we first choreographed ‘Shatter’ and now I am loving that most of our cast would be able to stand up and give a 30-minute presentation on who the Suffragettes were and what they did. Education through dance is something we are very proud of with this work!” said director and choreographer Alex Dellaportas.
The show’s choreography has been tweaked with fresh transitions while cast members are working to invest themselves into the character using acting techniques. Director Alex said it has been an emotional and vibrant roller coaster. “Looking at Shatter again in preparation for our tour has allowed me to step back and really make connections between the story and my own life,” Alex said. Being on tour is a company first for Spark. Alex felt, ‘Shatter’ was the perfect entry show to break boundaries. Yet like all shows, the ride to re-staging a dance piece with a full orchestra and a youthful cast has not been easy. “We’ve been working round the clock this term to make it happen and with two seasons within two weeks of each other it has been challenging to say the least!” she said. “I just can’t wait for that moment when the curtain rises and our young cast hold their breath side stage as the orchestra plays their first notes. That moment right there is why I do what I do,” added Alex. The show follows the character Rosie, who is desperately trying to get past her fears and leave an old version of herself behind. Society pushes against her when she abandons her family to become a Suffragette. “There is this one scene at the end of act one that relates to all of us when we’ve had to make a decision to leave something or someone behind holding us back. That decision to finally trust ourselves and believe in our own voice…represents being brave enough to quiet the two warring sides of yourself and go all in on who you really are in your heart,” Alex smiled. If you are a history buff, or a believer in equal rights, a ‘muso’ or even just a fan of contemporary dance, then this is the show for you! ‘SHATTER’ TOUR: Wednesday April 11th Bunjil Place, Narre Warren Saturday April 14th Geelong Performing Arts Centre www.sparkyouthdance.com.au
JORDAN MATTER'S 10 MINUTE CHALLENGE DOWN UNDER
TEAGAN AND SAM RYBKA (AKA THE RYBKA TWINS) Congratulations on being in the Jordan Matter 10 Minute Dance Challenge! Was it everything you expected it to be? It was everything and more! We honestly had the best day! We're kind of used to performing acrobatic tricks on rough surfaces because we're always taking photos here there and everywhere so it didn't really bother us at all. The school kids were so crazy! We were so humbled with their excitement they showed for us to be visiting their school with Jordan. How did you feel meeting Jordan for the first time? Were you both nervous or excited? We were more excited than nervous. We hit it off with Jordan straight away. He's exactly like he is in his videos! He's crazy, fun and so passionate!
You got to shoot with Faith Ward who is also from Perth. How was it collaborating? It was so awesome! Faith's 10 minute photo challenge looked amazing and it was so cool to be apart of it! Can't wait to see it go live on Jordan's YouTube channel!
You have a YouTube channel which has truly taken off! We are so overwhelmed with the response we've received on our YouTube channel! It honestly inspires us to keep going and training hard to be the best we possibly can be!
Where did you train?
How do you do your videos for any budding young YouTuber?
We started Acro when we were just three-years-old and then dancing at the age of five. We trained at the Debra McCulloch Dance Academy for 13 years and are now taking classes at Kalamunda Performers where we've been teaching acrobats with our mum for quite a few years. We haven't ever done as many contact hours as people might think but we definitely make up for it with all the practice we do at home. We've been really lucky to have such a talented mum who has helped us so much over the years with our dancing and acrobats. We wouldn't be where we are today without her!
We edit our own videos! As we post 2 videos a week (One on our personal channel & one on Squared {A channel just for twins}) one of us will edit the video for our channel and the other will edit the Squared video. We're so lucky to have a videographer which is actually our amazing mum and we all come up with the concepts together. One of us might come up with a particular idea and then we all brainstorm and nut it out together. We make a great team! All videos are different! Some of them take no time at all and others take days. They catch us by surprise sometimes!