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2015STRUT Up and DanceProgram

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Contents02Vision

03Contents

04Welcome

06STRUT Up and Dance: An overview

08Membership

09Core Activities

10Dance Training

13Residencies

13Recurring Performance Opportunities

14The Master Workshop Series

14Gaga Ohad Naharin’s Movement Language

16William Forsythe

18The Collaboration Program

20In the Mix

21You and Me, Both

22Gavin Webber

23Shona Erskine

24Me Casa es Su Casa

26Our Partners

VisionA beacon for contemporary dance development

STRUT Dance is the national centre for choreographic development based in Perth, Western Australia. It is our vision and privilege to make Perth a beacon of excellence and innovation for dance artists across the nation.

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Welcome to STRUT Dance 2015

With our focus to building on what has gone before, STRUT Dance in 2015 is moving ahead in leaps and bounds…

Our development of West Australian dance artists is now fortified by the national mandate implemented in 2014. Benchmark professional training allied with master workshops, residencies and performance platforms from studio to stage to site-specific are central to our delivery. Unique opportunity is the key draw and eyes are turning west.

Artists from across Australia have been able to focus on core physical tools to develop choreography by drawing on masters of Europe and Australia, including the movement language of Ohad Naharin’s Gaga, William Forsythe and Antony Hamilton to name a few.

2014 culminated with the inaugural MoveMe Improvisation Festival that caravanned across the country to three other states, a national first.

And the firsts keep coming with 2015 with Mi Casa es Su Casa, our co-production with Fringeworld.

The building blocks in 2015 are a layering of artforms, choreography to musical composition. In partnership with Tura New Music and the State Theatre Centre of WA, the program provides the means to development of skills in collaboration. How does a choreographer “talk” to a composer? What is the vernacular of their exchange?

STRUT Staff

DirectorPaul Selwyn Norton

Business ManagerShane Colquhoun

Program and CommunicationsJo Pickup

STRUT Board

ChairOlwyn Williams

TreasurerSteve North

Philanthropy and SponsorshipLiesbeth Goedhart

Business Planning and Development June Moorhouse

Strategic and Corporate DevelopmentJon Smeulders

LegalTamar Kennedy

Artist MembersDeborah Robertson Justin Rutzou Aimee Smith Amy Wiseman

Olwyn Williams STRUT Chair

Partnership is vital for STRUT Dance to deliver all of our work and alongside the partners mentioned throughout the 2015 program, STRUT Dance acknowledges the support of the State Government of Western Australia through the Department of Culture and the Arts, the Australia Council for the Arts, Lotterywest and City of Perth.

In 2015 we will be seeking to further build the partnerships that are our foundations and we look forward to you becoming part of the future of dance in Australia.

Brochure photography Simon Pynt

STRUT thanks dancers Bernadette Lewis, Yilin Kong, Linton Aberle and choreographer Riley Watts.

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BODY

STRUT Up and Dance: An overview

A program of benchmark training, collaboration and performance opportunities unique in Australia COLLABORATION PUBLIC ARENA

STRUT has developed a dynamic and responsive program that builds skills in collaboration. In partnership with Tura New Music and the State Theatre Centre WA, STRUT will provide pathways to encourage future collaboration across all stage art forms. 2015 and 2016 will see many kinds of “speed dating” scenarios – with performance outcomes – arranged between choreographers, designers and composers. (see pages 18 - 21)

Throughout the year, choreographers are offered the opportunity to develop and present work with production values at all levels. To maximize the benefit the majority of these performance opportunities will segue straight from training or collaborative programs directly into the public arena. From studio showings to full evening presentations onstage at the the State Theatre Centre WA, all manner of platforms, sites and festivals will be available for expression.

STRUT offers sustained exposure to world-class dance techniques and choreographic methodology in order to enrich the body’s range of practice and help ignite and inspire development. Opportunities are offered each year with core mentors Ohad Naharin and William Forsythe as constant.Sustained exposure to these techniques as core training will be supplemented by training in current contemporary technique, physical theatre disciplines and improvisation.

STRUT Up and Dance offers choreographers and dance practitioners the possibility to really engage with great national and international masters, the chance to work with collaborative partners in the making of their own performance, and the opportunity to put their work in front of a willing and informed audience.

As a national organisation, STRUT is now open to all and continues to operate on three levels:

BODY, COLLABORATION and the PUBLIC ARENA, with a focus on COLLABORATION in 2015

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STRUT membership is now nationwide, encompassing and encouraging a community of passionate, professional independent choreographers and dance-makers.

To take full advantage of the STRUT Up and Dance program, all participants are invited to become members. Benefits of being a STRUT member include:

- Discounts for professional classes, master workshops, other professional development opportunities and STRUT performance seasons

- Eligibility to apply for all levels of the STRUT program, including residencies and performance opportunities in the studio and on stage

Membership

Who can become a STRUT member?

Anybody aged 18 or over, who is involved in professional dance practice, a 3rd yr secondee or any another stage artist interested in the collaboration projects.

Visit strutdance.org.au to sign up as a member!

- Administrative support and marketing advice for your own projects

- Regular email news updates including the STRUT Member News

- Discounts at our various hospitality and local retail partners

- All this for $50!

Core Activities

STRUT Up and Dance provides a robust and holistic range of core activities to underpin professional choreographic development:

Dance Training: Professional/Public

Residencies

Recurring Performance Opportunities

The Rogues Program

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Key Interstate Teachers

Identified by our STRUT membership, these teachers have a substantial choreographic practice which also deeply feeds their pedagogy.

Image: Kristina Chan by Gregrpry Lorenzuttl

Kristina ChanKristina’s contemporary technique takes its idiom from a collection of knowledge gathered by years of training and collaboration with acclaimed choreographers from around Australia. Working with visual imagery and physical sensitivities are now at the core of her interests and practice.

Dean Walsh Dean has been working in very diverse fields of movement / performance and improvisation studies his whole career. In more recent years his robust fluidity has been augmented by a highly systematic analysis, commenced during his Australia Council Dance Fellowship 2011-2012. With his movement system / taxonomy PrimeOrderly, Dean has created an environmentally conscious dance practice, one that allies sensation to intellect to artistry.

Linda Ridgeway GamblinLinda is an expert in teaching classical ballet with a mindfulness of the demands on contemporary dancers. Her class promotes a sustainable approach to the classical idiom. She is also the brain behind the Sydney Dance Company Pre-professional year (SDCPPY). STRUT is also developing a partnership to share international mentors and identify opportunities for WA artists to choreograph on SDCPPY

Dance Training

Professional Class

Aspirational training for professional dancers and physical theatre practitioners.

STRUT recognises the necessity of regular technical training as part of a dancer’s physical maintenance and preparedness to work. STRUT is committed to providing the sector with inspirational dance teachers and mentors from all over Australia and abroad. Master workshop leaders will provide their services to professional class, be it Gaga, Forsythe, Gavin Webber or Marina Mascarell. New to this year are several key interstate teachers identified by STRUT members.

When9.00 - 10.30am Mondays – Fridays

VenueKing Street Arts Centre357-365 Murray Street, Perth

PriceSTRUT Members$10 per class $80 for 10-class cardNon-Members$15 per class

ParticipationOpen to all professional-level dancers and physical theatre practitioners

Check strutdance.org.au for up-to-date class listings, including information about upcoming teachers

Narelle BenjaminNarelle’s contemporary technique is a unique blend of Eastern and Western methodologies. Yoga and Kung Fu underpin a phrasing that is as articulate and circular as it is centered and stable. She makes dancers re-approach their class with efficacy and endurance.

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Public Class

STRUT continues to open its doors to fans who just feel the need to join us on the dance floor. Our public contemporary classes are geared at an amateur level – for beginners and intermediates – but are led by a professional, with an emphasis on technique, musicality and joy. Open to anyone, any age, with any level of experience in dance. Come STRUT with us!

WhenBeginner: 5.40 - 6.55pm, TuesdaysIntermediate: 7.00 - 8.15pm, Tuesdays

VenueKing Street Arts Centre357-365 Murray Street, Perth

PriceIntro Class $15 (for first class of each block)4-Week Block$50 (Beginner or Intermediate)Intro Upgrade$35 (from Intro to 4-Week Block)3-Month Pass$120 (up to 12 classes in 12 weeks) Year Pass$400 (access to all 80 public classes in 2014)

ParticipationCheck strutdance.org.au to find out more and to book your place in these classes

Residencies

The Rogues Program

An initiative to create opportunities for artists who have taken a more idiosyncratic or non-institutionalised pathway into dance.

STRUT’s desire is to draw from a culturally and artistically diverse pool of dancers who, in turn, help build a more robust cohort of WA dance artists.

To this date, STRUT has successfully supported 4 Rogues through parts of the 2014 program.

Any individual or organisation may nominate a Rogue for consideration.

SEED Residencies

Four artists per year are able to apply for residencies of up to $10,000.

These residencies have been successful in offering choreographers financial and administrative resources to really knuckle into a new process for an extended period of time.

Selection is by formal application to be reviewed by an independent panel. Bookmark the strutdance.org.au website for updates.

The successful SEED recipients for 2015 will be announced at the closing party of the MoveMe Improvisation Festival.

Recurring Performance Opportunities

Off Cuts

An “open mic night” for independent dance. Off Cuts is a series of low-key studio events, spontaneous and fresh. This is not about hours of rehearsal but moments of inspiration. Choreographers get the floor for a maximum of 15 minutes to bust out something bold, immediate and raw.

Short Cuts

The famous staple expression of STRUT, where artists are provided with resources to develop work and present it to a paying public in a studio setting. The second calendar season of Short Cuts is curated by Unkempt Dance as In Short.

Prime Cuts (biennial)

The opportunity for choreographers to present longer works with higher production values, curated from Short Cuts, for performance in a theatre setting. STRUT will provide administrative, production and marketing support throughout the process. The next Prime Cuts will be in 2016.

DateMar 14 and Sep 5

VenueStudio 2, King Street Arts Centre, Perth

ParticipationEOI: No selection procedure

DateShort Cuts: May 7-9In Short: Oct 30-Nov 1

VenueStudio 3, King Street Arts Centre, Perth

ParticipationEOI (TBA)

Date2016

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GagaOhad Naharin’s Movement Language

In 2014, Gaga proved to be a massive national draw card in STRUT’s program as the opportunity offered an exclusive insight into the world of Naharin and Gaga. The 2015 master workshops will again include both Gaga - Ohad Naharin’s Movement Language as well as choreography from across Naharin’s repertoire.

The Master Workshop Series

“Gaga is a new way of gaining knowledge

and self-awareness through your

body. Gaga provides a framework for

discovering and strengthening your

body and adding flexibility, stamina, and

agility while lightening the senses and

imagination. Gaga raises awareness of

physical weaknesses, awakens numb

areas, exposes physical fixations, and

offers ways for their elimination” - gagapeople.com

Benchmark workshops for professional dance and physical theatre artists

DateFeb 2-13 and Sep 21-Oct 2

VenueKing Street Arts Centre

Gaga is also the movement language that Batsheva Dance Company uses as its daily training and research.

The marvelous Rachael Osborne will continue to be the project leader. New to the Gaga team this year is Tom Weinberger, former dancer with Batsheva. We are thrilled to be sharing this very accomplished artist with our membership.

Gaga and STRUT are aiming to build these master workshops towards a performance of Ohad Naharin’s Choreography in 2016.

Price WA Artists$350 Member$400 Non-memberInterstate/International$400 Member$450 Non-member

ParticipationEOI (including CV and motivation) in by Jan 5/Aug 24

Image: Gadi Gadon

Instrumental to STRUT Up and Dance’s goals is enriching the sector with a continuity of pertinent and contemporary dance practice. The Master Workshop series has an ongoing commitment with Gaga: Ohad Naharin’s Movement Language and The Forsythe Foundation. These fundamental methodologies continue into 2015 and are supplemented by international, national and WA masters Marina Mascarell, Gavin Webber, Rachael Ogle and Shona Erskine.

16 17Image: One Flat Thing, reproduced, by Thierry de Mey

Improvisation and repertoire Robert Scott - One Flat Thing, reproduced

William Forsythe

DateMay 18-29 (Thomas McManus) Nov 9-20 (Cyril Baldy)

VenueKing Street Arts Centre, Perth

Price WA Artists$350 Member$400 Non-memberInterstate/International$400 Member$450 Non-member

ParticipationEOI (including CV and motivation) in by

Apr 20 (Thomas McManus)Oct 12 (Cyril Baldy)

The Forsythe Foundation has agreed to offer the seminal work “One Flat Thing, reproduced” (2000) to STRUT as a choreographic model of excellence to build over the next 2 years. The beauty of this work is that is draws on choreographic methodologies, improvisation scores and repertoire right back to “Robert Scott” (1986) and forward to “Synchronous Objects” (2009).

Unpacking such a piece will expose participants to a clear arc of Forsythe’s own development over 30 years, as well as prepare them for the eventual rehearsals and performance of “One Flat Thing, reproduced” in 2016 (TBC). Christopher Roman, the Director of the Forsythe Foundation is now leading this project with STRUT and has identified Thomas McManus and Cyril Baldy as the 2015 master workshop leaders.

18 19Image: Riley Watts, by Dominik Mentzos

More often than not, resources do not allow for collaboration across art forms at an early developmental level. STRUT has devised dynamic and responsive programs for choreographers that build skills in collaborative processes.

From 2015 onwards STRUT will provide pathways to encourage future collaboration across all stage art forms. We feel that these conversations should commence at ground zero and be continually

The Collaboration Program

nurtured. The aim is to provide all parties with the necessary vernacular and skills to develop performance works of greater resonance and depth and deliver these to the public. 2015 will focus on sound design and music composition.

STRUT, in partnership with Tura New Music and the State Theatre Centre WA, will present two 2-week workshops, the first with choreographer Marina Mascarell (SP/NL) and Nick Wales (NSW) and

the second with local artist Rachel Arianne Ogle and sound designer and composer Luke Smiles (VIC/SA).

In principle, these workshops are for both choreographers and composers who are interested to develop their collaborative skills across disciplines. Under the guidance of industry masters, a cohort of choreographers and composers will be devising principles and methodologies for working

together and applying the results onto a pool of dancers for immediate analysis and feedback.

Tura New Music will be providing full scholarships for select composers to attend this program.

(Please attach your interest to be considered for a scholarship to your EOI.)

In partnership with Tura New Music and the State Theatre Centre WA

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You and Me, Both: Rachel Arianne Ogle/Luke Smiles

Rachel Arianne Ogle is a pillar of the WA dance sector and already has a fruitful collaborative relationship with Luke Smiles culminating in precipice in 2014.

Here is a team that can provide a very refined skill set towards working collectively for the stage. In contrast to In the Mix, this second workshop You and Me, Both will be a slower reflective approach that enables the choreographers to develop an evolving sound-scape for their own work. This will culminate in a public performance outcome hosted by the State Theatre Centre WA.

Date Nov 30 – Dec 13

Venue King St Arts Centre and State Theatre Centre WA

Price WA Artists$350 Member $400 Non-memberInterstate/International$400 Member$450 Non-member

ParticipationEOI (including CV and motivation) in by Oct 23

In the Mix: Marina Mascarell/Nick Wales

“In the Mix” will be two-week introduction into the art of collaboration, with an emphasis on developing skills of communication and responsiveness. It will be fast turn around, with a series on immediate performance outcomes. There will be a presentation of the outcomes for the general public hosted by the State Theatre Centre WA.

Marina Mascarell Her history working at dance companies such as NDT and Cedar Lake plus her theatre studies have provided her with a wealth of narrative tools that she does not shy from implementing in her own choreography. Her dance is topical, evocative and deeply social and speaks from the heart of the matter.

Part of my interest goes to the theatre

and the other to life. I need to talk

about the world in which we live and the

choices we make and their consequence

analyzing our history with stories that can

move us. The annexation of reality art

has a deep meaning. Through this act the

reality transcends borders and enters the

realm of the impossible. -Marina Mascarell

Date Mar 23 – Apr 3

Venue King St Arts Centre and State Theatre Centre WA

Price WA Artists$350 Member $400 Non-memberInterstate/International$400 Member$450 Non-member

ParticipationEOI (including CV and motivation) in by Feb 23

Nick Wales Nick Wales is a Sydney based composer who works across contemporary dance, popular music, film, theatre, fashion and new classical music. He has created unique compositions for many of the works of Shaun Parker and Rafael Bonachela and is a founding member and Co-Composer of CODA, a critically acclaimed musical group which incorporates classical styling with contemporary rock and electronica.

Image: Robert Benschop Image: Emily Bowmn

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Gavin Webber Performance-Practice-Presence

Image Little Pig/Gavin Webber by Maurice Korbel

Identified by STRUT members as an industry master, Gavin’s dance theatre work moves effortlessly between brutal reality and poetic absurdity. His history with Ultima Vez, Dancenorth, Splinter Group and The Farm has provided him with an uncompromising approach to theatre making. His two-week master-class will focus on choreographic devising, performance practice and theatrical presence.

Date Aug 3-14

VenueKing Street Art Centre, Perth

PriceWA Artists$350 Member $400 Non-memberInterstate/International$400 Member$450 Non-member

ParticipationEOI (including CV and motivation) in by July 6

Shona’s expertise in the field of performance psychology and preparedness has given many dancers the tools with which to approach the demands and rigors of a life in performance and artistic pursuit.

She has developed a series of five practical workshops over the five days focusing on the key issues she sees arising for vocational dance students and young professionals.

The workshops will provide greater awareness about the components of psychology that compliment and enhance physical training, while offering researched and proven methods for achieving excellence.

The workshops will consist of a daily class, a seminar outlining theory and research relevant to the topic, followed by a workshop full of practical applications

Shona ErskineDancing Mind

DateNov 2-6

VenueKing Street Arts Centre, Perth

PriceWA Artists$300 (175 half-day) Member

$350 (200 half-day) Non-member

Interstate/International$350 (250 half-day) Member

$400 (300 half-day) Non-member

ParticipationEOI (including CV and motivation) in by Oct 6

The workshop will be broken down into two options:

Half day 9am-1pm Professional class plus seminar

Full day 9am-5pm Professional class plus reflection and deeper practice

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Mi Casa es Su Casa (My House is Your House)

Image (right): Jo Pollitt and Jacob Lehrer by Simon Pynt

Gabrielle Nankivell will first check you in, check you out and then shake it all about. A stellar performer with Australian Dance Theatre, Gabriel will dance with the ghosts of the Riverview Hotel. Riverview was originally built in the swinging 60’s as workers flats and is now one of Perth’s chicest boutique stopovers.

Next up is Antony Hamilton, the dystopian hero of contemporary dance, who will flood Riverview parking lot with particular blend ritual and mayhem.

Meanwhile Perth’s own Jo Pollitt and Jacob Lehrer will draw knives and take the kitchen by storm. Jo and Jacob are pillars of contemporary performance with a personal volume set to intensity.

Buy your ticket, kick off your heals, because you are home. Or at least you though you were...

Date Feb 6-21

Sessions7:30pm, 8:30pm, 9:30pm.

VenueRiverview Hotel

Price$29.50

See www.fringeworld.com.au for details and ticketing

Mi Casa es Su Casa is a thrilling new project designed by STRUT Dance and co-produced with FRINGEWORLD 2015. Some of Australia’s hottest choreographic artists are invited to let their fantasies run riot in Perth’s iconic Riverview Hotel and make it their home. Now they are inviting you inside to make it yours...

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Funded by

Organisation Partners

International Partners

Venue Partners

Hospitality Partners

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STRUT Dance

First Floor, 357 – 365 Murray StreetPerth WA 6000

PO Box 7011, Cloisters SquarePerth WA 6850

61 8 9321 4066

strutdance.org.au