QL2 Dance Studio’s Ruth Osbourne is nothing if not passionate about dance. “I feel really strongly about dance being a great vehicle in the development of young people,” the artistic director tells me, as we catch up to talk about the studio’s Quantum Leap dance ensemble.
Quantum Leap is an auditioned ensemble that runs annually. The program commissions four professional choreographers from around Australia to come and develop the performance with young dancers, of up to 26 years of age. The final production is performed at the Canberra Theatre, and this year’s show, Night. Time., will run from July 28 to 31.
“We plan the project all year, but we audition in February, and from March onwards we run Sunday workshops. In that time, the young dancers, along with myself and my assistant, create work collaboratively,” Ruth explains. “Then, in the holiday period, we have the commissioned choreographers coming in.”
With such an exhaustive process of development, the dancers are able to be heavily involved in the creation of the entire performance.
“The dancers are definitely part of the creative process, not just having steps taught to them,” Ruth agrees. “They’re learning to create and collaborate and be part of a whole project together.”
This year’s performance is named Night. Time., and deals thematically with the wee hours.“We’re basically looking at the period from dusk to dawn, and what goes on. Each choreographer has chosen a different aspect of the subject matter, but it all connects together and feels like one performance.”
This year, the choreographers involved were Anton, Jodie Farrugia, Adam Wheeler, and Malonie Palomares, each of whom has focused on a different idea - ranging from the scientific elements of sleeping, such as rapid eye movements and REM, to the lives of those who don’t sleep during night time, such as shift workers. The show is structured in two parts, and is accompanied by an original score composed by Adam Ventoura as well as a video installation produced by Bearcage Productions.
“For audiences it’s interesting, because it doesn’t feel like the same thing the whole way through, and you get a lot of variety through the music and the movement, and the ideas behind it,” Ruth explains.
As Ruth reminds me, “Quantum leap is an important part of Canberra’s youth arts, and it’s great that it’s supported so well. I really hope that people come along if they haven’t seen it before, or if they have, know that this will be a different kind of performance. Hopefully you’ll love it!”
Night. Time. performs at The Playhouse from July 28 to 31. Tickets through Canberra Ticketing.
An intimate cabaret performance, The Girls promises an unadulterated exposé of self, as performers Hannah Ley, Leah Baulch, Hanna Cormick and performer-director Dianna Nixon bare (almost) all through music from Nick Cave, Tom Waits and Edith Piaf and Carole King, among others.
It’s likely you’ve seen some of the talented girls on stage before—but never like this.
Part of the Street Theatre’s Made in Canberra season of independent local work, The Girls was conceived by Dianna Nixon. A vocal and drama coach, she’s been providing voice lessons for the other three girls for a year or more, and this seemed a natural progression for the performers and an opportunity for them to put their new skills into practice.
“Dianna set a framework, and with the addition of the ridiculously talented Sarah Kaur [set design], invited us to add flesh to the bones. It has very much been a collaborative process,” explains Hannah Ley.
While the performance is musically driven, each of the girls brings a different background with her—from Nixon’s experience as a musical director, Baulch’s background as a director and teacher and Cormick’s mask work and cross-art practice.
“I have a dance background first and foremost, so my natural contribution has been through choreography and movement, both for myself and other members of the cast,” Ley says.
“I think it can be a challenge when you’re not only from different backgrounds, training and preferred mediums of theatre, but in this instance we’ve been given a fair amount of freedom to contribute without fear of prejudice or a ‘we don’t do it that way’ response! Initially I felt a little out of practice in regards to devising and extending an idea into a whole show—this was certainly a departure from the comfort zone and an exercise in trusting my own ideas and responses.”
Extending it even further out of the comfort zone are the personal elements the performers bring with them. While they sit at dressing tables in a room styled by Kaur, each girl weaves her stories into the narrative thread, revealing themselves through song.
“I toyed for a long time with what I wanted to say—how much, would anyone care, will it entertain or come across as schmaltz?” Ley says.
“There are definite elements of ‘me’ in there, some of them are obvious, some only those close to me will recognise. I didn’t feel a burning need to expose my heart and soul; for me there are some things that are only for the ears and eyes of my husband!”
The Girls is a celebration of frivolity and solemnity; secrets and half truths, the frank and the feminine—and plenty more. And for just one night, the girls are your closest friends.
The Girls opens at the Street Theatre Thursday 29 July, playing 7pm and 9pm nightly til Saturday 31 July.
The Last Days of Chez Nous and Love Lust and Lies: In The Winter Arc
In 1976, a 26 year-old Gillian Armstrong released Smokes and Lollies, a documentary looking at the lives of Kerry, Josie and Diana – three 14 year-old working class girls from suburban Adelaide. The documentary's soulful, yet honest, portrayal of the girls and their lives captured the hearts and imaginations of many Australians and provided a stark portrayal of Australia's social and cultural fabric of the time. Armstrong went on to film the girls over the ensuing years, releasing 14's Good 18's Better (1980), Bingo Bridesmaids and Braces (1988) and Not Fourteen Again (1996). Now, 14 years since she last visited these women, Armstrong has released Love Lust & Lies, the fifth documentary in the series, which will have its Canberra premier this August at the National Film and Sound Archive's Arc Cinema.
The documentary will be screened as part of Arc Cinema's regular program of Australian films, a program which Quentin Turnour, NFSA's chief programmer describes as "running both contemporary and historic films and documentaries, as part of the archive's role to preserve and display Australia's history." As Turnour suggests, Arc Cinema's screening of Australian films generally focuses on classics, films which are rarely seen, or contemporary films which or only given limited release.
"A lot of films don't get to Canberra, because it's a small city with a limited number of screens," Turnour says. "We were aware Armstrong's new film wouldn't get here, so we offered to run it. Not only would it allow us to show other films in the series which haven't been shown in a while, but it would also allow us to show a new print of The Last Days of Chez Nous [Armstrong's fictional Australian drama of 1992], which we haven't shown in Canberra yet."
In July and August, Arc Cinema will also screen a variety of Australian films from the late 1950s and early 1960s. As with many contemporary Australian films, films of this period, such as Frank Zinnemann's classic The Sundowners were a controversial mix of Hollywood influence and storytelling, alongside supposed depictions of Australian culture and identity. And as with contemporary Australian film, the line between what was a true reflection of Australian life, and what was mere romanticising for the sake of Hollywood acclaim, was quite blurred.
Importantly, however, films of this period were the last to be made before Australian film's hiatus (with close to no films being produced between 1960-1966) and then its re-birth in the 1960s and 1970s, of which Armstrong was integrally a part. By experiencing films of the 50s alongside Armstrong's productions, audiences will observe the dramatic shift in style and influence of Australian filmmakers between generations.
"Armstrong is important because she was part of that first generation who were brought up with an awareness of just how bad things were in the Australian film industry," says Turnour. "[She] went to AFTRS' (Australian Film Television and Radio School) first ever class, and was one of the very first people to get formal film training. You see films from the 50s and 60s, and the drought that followed, and then you see the re-building of our film industry by people like Armstrong and others in her generation, during the 70s."
Armstrong is widely known for her period dramas, including My Brilliant Career, Little Women, and Charlotte Gray. However, it is her depiction of Australian life – particularly the role of women – which has been her greatest contribution to Australian cinema. "Armstrong has always used the documentaries and Kerry, Josie and Diana to chart the impact that feminism has had on Australian society," Turnour says. "Importantly, her films show, over time, how some aspects of feminism have become deeply integrated into Australian life, whereas in some ways, things haven't changed."
Armstrong's focus on female subject matters has also set her apart in her international features. Her films constantly depict female heroines and protagonists in very strong roles and – like her documentaries – aim to capture the mood of a particular period through the lives, identity and experiences of particular women.
"Only 5% of Hollywood films are directed by women. Even in Iran, 25% are directed by women," Turnour points out. "Armstrong's films are quite unusual, in an Australian or Hollywood context, as they show women in strong roles - not in chick-flick roles - and often in unusual historical circumstances."
Another Australian film to be shown in the coming months at Arc will be Andrew Lancaster's new film, Accidents Happen. A coming of age film starring Geena Davis, it is set in 1980s US but was shot entirely in northern Sydney. As well as gaining acclaim throughout the US and Australia, it again reflects the particular dynamic of Australian cinema and its North American counterpart.
"Back in the 50s and 60s, there were lots of American films shot and set in Australia. Now, we have an Australian film which was written and shot in Australia, but set in the US, so again the whole idea of what an 'Australian' film is, is brought into question," Turnour says. "Controversy over the depiction of Australian identity is something that certainly never goes away."
The Last Days of Chez Nous and Love Lust and Lies will screen at Arc Cinema on Saturday August 7 at 2pm and 4pm respectively. At 5:30pm Armstrong will join audiences in conversation about both films and her career. For more information on other Australian films screening at Arc in July and August, visit http://www.nfsa.afc.gov.au/whats_on/arc
Australian National University School of Art Gallery Continuing until Saturday July 31
Art exhibitions are too-frequently characterised by the paint smell from hastily-completed display spaces. Infused with the scent of fresh woods and sealing oils, A Container of Memories is refreshingly different. The show was been put together by Rodney Hayward, the head of the Australian National University School of Art’s Furniture Design and Wood workshop, along with a large number of dedicated young artists.
It comprises students and alumni from across the art school. Most of the artists are from Hayward’s workshop, but their wood pieces are complimented by works of various other media. The fact that this integration is so seamless only goes to show that it is not really ‘integration’: it’s just art. It is an exhibition which showcases both emerging artists and the strength of the school, particularly Hayward’s Furniture Design and Wood workshop. It is a large show of varied work. It is calm, confusing, funny, passionate, dire and comforting. One work questions our confidence in memory, the next exalts in it. It presents the ephemeral impossibility and the physical reality of our memories. ...or that’s what I remember.
The exhibition’s theme asks a series of complex questions that probe our responses to and ideas about life. After all, the notion of memory itself is inherently personal. Artist Elliot Bastianon, whose work ‘Alzheimer’s’ (2010) is on display in the exhibition, says that “for many of the current students, this exhibition was a chance to exhibit pieces that were highly individual, stemming from a very personal place – an emotional response to a brief, as opposed to following a set of guidelines.”
This personal, emotional thesis makes for a refreshingly original and captivating exploration of art. Some artists have responded to the theme literally, with the creation of cabinets and secretive lockboxes. Others, like Elliot, have responded more conceptually or metaphorically: his work is a box of sorts, a juxtaposition of organic and machined wood, in which is hidden a tangle of cassette tape. It is an emotional response to the reality of a debilitating illness.
It is the curse for artists who work with wood, or who simply create works that are functional, to be considered somehow less artistic than their painterly peers. Hayward’s workshop combines what has been mistaken for a simple, physical discipline with a very strong philosophical base. He encourages his students to question, to seek and to explore and this is the strength of A Container of Memories.
