FORM Dance Projects and Riverside Theatres present VALUE FOR MONEY

With Australia's current uncertain economy, it's rising costs and elevated inflation, Value For Money is a timely named contemporary dance work by GUTS Dance from Mparntwe (Alice Springs) Central Australia, in their first FORM Dance Projects Dance Bites season at Riverside Theatres.

For GUTS Dance it's the rift between the calculable economic value of life and the intangible emotional and physical value of a person that the work investigates, as shaped by each culture and context. It looks at how relationships, community, proximity and place change our perception of a life's worth.

Sara Black and Jasmin Sheppard are the choreographers and concept creators. Sara, who works in Australia and overseas, choreographed Double Beat, which was premiered by FORM in the 2022 May Dance Bites season.

Jasmin Sheppard is a contemporary dancer, choreographer and director who studied at NAISDA and is a former Bangarra Dance Senior dancer, a Tagalaka Aboriginal woman with Irish, Chinese and Hungarian ancestry.

"Value For Money began its journey many years ago...the concept came as I was travelling through the Middle East during the Arab Spring uprisings. The way I was treated or valued travelling throughout these places in relation to local or neighbouring people was stark... It sparked a fascination on how we choose to place our value, what makes us feel safe around others and what information we use to come to these conclusions? After two developments of Value For Money it was clear to me that the themes we were exploring were bigger than I could direct as a white woman" Sara Black says.

"The conversation on human value spoke deeply to me, and as a First Nations woman with mixed heritage I felt I could bring a different lens with which to view the creative process" says Sheppard, "There's so much depth that can be explored conceptually, and the many rich discussions have led to a multi-layered work, which I believe can speak to audiences from a vast array of diverse human experiences."