Australasian Dance Collective’s latest triple bill couldn’t be more timely – as it builds on the success of its recent ground-breaking works and celebrates the company’s 40th anniversary year.
ADC, previously EDC (Expressions Dance Company), has made a name for itself in contemporary dance by providing a platform for creative risk-taking.
THREE, on at Brisbane Powerhouse from March 20 to 23, features a trio of performances, including world premieres from award-winning choreographer Jenni Large and multidisciplinary artist Alisdair Macindoe. There will also be the Brisbane debut of a solo work by independent dance maker Amber McCartney, set to a pulsing experimental soundtrack by Makeda Zucco.
It’s all part of the collaborative plan led by ADC artistic director Amy Hollingsworth, who describes THREE as a program that “has always been my love letter to the broader community of art makers”.
ADC preaches to a broad church of innovative dance and music lovers. Last year’s Lucie in the Sky combined dance and drones in a world first. This was followed by the Brisbane Festival’s Salamander, which featured ADC’s dancers in a juggernaut production staged at a Northshore warehouse
“In terms of this year’s iteration of THREE, I wanted to try something a little bit different,” Hollingsworth says. “So, we have two absolutely amazing new commissions by two wonderful artists, Alisdair Macindoe and Jenni Large. Then I wanted to use that middle part of the program to offer a presentation opportunity for an independent artist.”
The invitation for an independent artist to present a short work as part of THREE will now become a feature of the annual program.
“The independent artist has a chance to connect with an audience they might not have had that kind of leverage with before,” Hollingsworth says.
“This year it’s Amber McCartney’s stunning contribution to our program called Tiny Infinite Deaths. I just fell in love with it when I saw it in Melbourne. I think she’s not only an extraordinary performer, but so creative and she presents this work in a way that just completely transports you. She becomes almost otherworldly, like a creature, and I think audiences are going to be really mesmerised by her. I’m so thrilled to be presenting it here in Brisbane.”
Macindoe’s commission encourages us to contemplate the commercialisation of culture.
Hollingsworth says watching this piece is like going to “an amazing gig or nightclub where the music is just so driving and your body has that really kind of visceral response and it just leaves you wanting more”.
“And then we’ve just started work with Jenni Large,” she says. “I find her such an exciting maker. She’s going to bring that reflection on romance in our modern world, the beauty and ugliness of it.”
THREE is being presented as part of the boundary-pushing music festival OHM (at Brisbane Powerhouse until April 20) – a perfect marriage in Hollingsworth’s mind, as the original scores are celebrated as much as the dance.
“The scores – they’re electrifying, they’re all new and they’re really profoundly interesting and different, and they do appeal to the kind of audience that goes to a music festival, especially an electronic music festival,” she says.
“So, it feels like a really beautiful place for this program to land is to be inside a music festival and to shine a light on the musical talent that we work with as collectives.”
ADC gives space to many voices, with collaboration key to creating new works, alongside its mature dancer program, youth program and First Nations program, which has just embarked on a two-year project in partnership with BlakDance.
“I feel like the company has really arrived,” Hollingsworth says.
“It’s like everything that we said we were going to do four or five years ago has come to fruition and now people have a really tangible sense of what the collective is about.
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“I’m very proud of where we are now, but our commitment is to use this privilege and responsibility by building on that and continuing to use the momentum that we have to continue striving to make great art.”
Australasian Dance Collective’s THREE, Brisbane Powerhouse, March 20-23
Brisbanepowerhouse.org
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