Today, September 23 through Saturday, September 27, Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre will present the world premiere of Ocean's Skin, in partnership with Topology Music, for free performances at the Brisbane Festival in South Brisbane, Australia. Ocean's Skin is the creation of Artistic Director/Choreographer, Heidi Duckler, based in Los Angeles, and Topology Music's Composer/Musical Director, John Babbage, based in Australia. The piece reflects their fascination with the sounds and life-forms of the heavens and seas.
"Topology is one of the most significant creators of contemporary classics in Australia today," Duckler affirmed, "After the great reception to Off the Top of My Head at the internationale tanzmesse in Düsseldorf, Germany, followed by the amazing success of Dancing At Dunbar in Los Angeles two weeks ago, I'm delighted to again be traveling abroad to bring even more international visibility to our LA-based work. Moreover, taking this unique artistic journey in collaboration with John Babbage, principal saxophonist with Topology, promises to be an exciting part of the Brisbane festival."
The piece is performed by Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre core company dancers
Marissa Labog, Eva Hegge Wilder and Nicholas Heitzeberg, and Topology musicians John Babbage,
Robert Davidson, Bernard Hoey, Christa Powell and Therese Milanovic. Set in and around the Queensland Cultural Centre's Whale Mall, at Brisbane's Southbank, as the piece progresses, the performers merge in a fluid movement designed to emulate rivers meeting the sea.
"Heidi Duckler refers to her work as 'movement,' not dance; equally, sound (my music) is the 'movement of air molecules,'" noted Babbage, "My music is designed to reflect bodies of water (serene, refreshing, dangerous, violent, unforgiving, etc.) as well as how reliant all living things are on water... in all its vastness, emptiness, depth and space."
Inspired by the interplay between the heavens and seas, a new instrument, created by Babbage, places phototransistors underwater in shallow pools or fountains. The sensors pick up changes in light caused by ripples in the water and convert the signals into sound, ranging from chords and naturally occurring tones to recorded speech and sound manipulation. Babbage has designed the sounds to reflect the serene but dangerous and unforgiving nature of water.
As Brisbane Festival Artistic Director
Noel Staunton stated, Ocean's Skin, "is a great opportunity to spread shows across the whole arts precinct. I have wanted to do something innovative in the Whale Mall since I joined Brisbane Festival in 2010, and I am finally getting to do it in my last year. John Babbage's remarkable method of transforming water waves into sound waves is a beautiful accompaniment to Heidi Duckler's mesmerizing choreography. Between them, they have created a work that totally immerses you in the ocean. Our city is very lucky to have the chance to see this before anyone else."
The Brisbane Festival is a world class arts festival that explodes onto the scene every September with an exciting program of music, theatre, dance, comedy, opera, circus and much more. An initiative of the Queensland Government and Brisbane City Council, the festival runs September 6 through 27, 2014.
Ocean's Skin will be free and open to the public. For more information about Ocean's Skin, visit
www.brisbanefestival.com.au/whats-on/oceans-skin. For additional information about the Brisbane Festival, visit
www.brisbanefestival.com.au.
Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre - Founded in 1985 by Artistic/Executive Director and choreographer Heidi Duckler, Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre has created memorable dance experiences in extraordinary locations for over two decades. Titled "the reigning queen of site-specific performance," by the LA Times, Heidi Duckler is dedicated to building audiences for the arts, especially among underserved populations. Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre creates contemporary art experiences in nontraditional places and learning opportunities in diverse neighborhoods that redefine the relationship between audience and art through the cultivation of innovative partnerships.
The company-originally named Collage Dance Theatre-began its site-specific work with Laundromatinee, a piece staged in a local Laundromat. As dancers performed alongside whirring washers and dryers, Laundromatinee captured the collage ethos of the company, mixing art, movement, pop culture, and interactivity in found spaces. The performance established the company's dedication to sharing the inner workings of its creative process, rather than sequestering it behind closed studio doors.
In 2010, the company launched its Expulsion series, a collaborative performance that partners with local companies to tell stories of home, origins, and immigration, using vacant lots across the city as its stage. Building cross-cultural work with the Cambodian community in Long Beach, the Armenian community in Glendale, the Ethiopian and Korean communities in Mid-City, and the Latino community in Boyle Heights, the Expulsion series uses performance as a means of community organizing and public engagement.
Heidi Duckler has created more than 100 original dance pieces all over the world, and has had her work commissioned by Miami Light, Grand Performances, REDCAT, Aben Dan in Denmark, Brookfield Properties, Barlow Respiratory Hospital, and the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation, among others. Awards include a City of LA Department of Cultural Affairs COLA Award, a California
Arts Council Choreography Fellowship, and a National Endowment of the Arts American Masterpiece Award. In 2012 Duckler was recognized as the Distinguished Alumnus from the University of Oregon School of Music & Dance, and in 2013 she received the Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival's Maverick Award. Most recently, Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre was included in LA Weekly's "Top 10 LA Dance Shows of 2013" for Heidi Duckler's At the Oasis.
Recent performances at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf in Germany and upcoming performances at the Brisbane Festival in Australia during the fall of 2014 serve as testaments to constant new experiments in site. As the company looks forward to animating new locations within the vast landscape, one thing is certain-expect Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre in unexpected places.
www.heididuckler.org.
Topology Music - Topology, Australia's most surprising music organization, creates original work across many genre boundaries. Ensemble-in-residence at the Brisbane Powerhouse and Key Organization of Australia Council for the Arts and Arts Queensland, their full-bodied energy brings out the full potential of five musicians comprising saxophone, strings and piano.
Since their beginning in 1997, Topology has released 11 albums, created countless evening-length works, an award-winning concert series, and toured extensively around the world. Topology's productions bring together a unique mix of music and theatre through thoughtful staging and beautiful lighting. They are famous for the breadth and depth of their collaborations. Undaunted by stylistic barriers, the quintet has created stunning new work with partners in theatre (Geoffrey Rush, Neil Armfield), classical music (the Brodsky Quartet, the Southern Cross Soloists), contemporary art music (Terry Riley, TaikOz), ballet (the Queensland Ballet), contemporary jazz (Misinterprotato, Loops), popular songwriting (Kate Miller-Heidke, Katie Noonan), comedy (the Kransky Sisters, Gerry Connolly), Asian music (Dheeraj Shrestha, TaikOz, Tony Prabowo, Ubiet) and indigenous Australian music (William Barton).
Topology has an energetic education program, working closely with schools since 1998 to guide individual and collaborative student compositions and performances, develop concerts and perform with students. Schools they have worked most closely with include Brisbane Grammar School, Kenmore High School, Brisbane Girls Grammar School, Stuartholme and Somerville House.
The band has toured most of Australia, Belgium, Netherlands, Canada, India, Singapore, and Indonesia. Festivals featuring Topology include the Ghent Festival of Flanders, Olympics Arts Festival, ISCM World New Music Days, Salihara Festival, Singapore Arts Festival, Castlemaine Festival, Brisbane Festival, Sydney Spring Festival, Queensland Music Festival, Brisbane International Film Festival, World Theatre Festival in Brisbane, Adelaide Festival and Ozfest in India.
Topology works with many leading international composers, including those from Canada (
Tim Brady), the UK (Andrew Poppy, Michael Nyman, Jeremy Peyton Jones), the US (Steve Reich, Terry Riley, John Zorn, William Duckworth,
Carl Stone,
Paul Dresher) and with many Australian composers (though their focus is original music).
Photo Credit: Dylan Evans
