Sydney's Annual Contemporary Dance Festival Is Back

March Dance is back in 2021 for it's third consecutive year annual month-long contemporary dance festival, March 1 to 31, created to support independent artists in Sydney.

It will bring together the diversity of ongoing independent dance practices in Sydney, opening these activities to a wide audience. 102 artists will engage in 95 events (31 performances,8 workshops and 20 residencies across ten Sydney venues in March, incorporating everything from the development of new dance works to workshops to performances, online live-streamed events and screening by Dance Cinema.

March Dance 2021 will be a celebration of Sydney independent dance artists and showcasing the remounting and development of work that was unfortunately on hold due to the pandemic. Finding space to create work is challenging, and the City of Sydney's support is paramount in providing artists with the opportunity to get back into the studio.

The event is an Independent Dance Alliance (IDA) project and a partnership between Critical Path, DirtyFeet and ReadyMade Works. IDA has joined forces with numerous companies and venues from across Sydney to celebrate independent dance culture in Sydney.

Four artists Elle Evangelista, Emily Flannery, Holly Craig and Wendy Yu, have been selected to receive mini bursaries of $1,000 to support their three-day residences.

"The 2021 festival is proud to support the Sydney dance community which has been struggling due to COVID" says Lauren Vassallo, festival manager. " March Dance 2021 is excited to allow audiences to experience live performances again. Many of the artists will no doubt reflect on how the pandemic has affected them. Independent Sydney dancer Elle Evangelista was due to premiere her work 30 THIRTY at last year's festival, about turning 30, which had to be cancelled due to COVID, during the festival Evangelista is working on a revised work about turning 31!"

Happy Hour Saturday March 13 at 6pm & Sunday March 14 at 6pm returns in 2021 with Happy Hour #11 Street Elite, curated by Nick Power. For the first time at Readymade,Ultimo, a batch of hardcore hip hop practitioners will celebrate culture, community and 'killa 'moves.

Another hip hop performance festival event is Geometric Flow, 26 - 28 March, a highlight of last years festival, which will take place in Petersham's Station Tunnel with performers illustrating the connections between graffiti and street dance.

Improv Exchange 2021 March 14 Rex Cramphorn Studio is an intensive 3-day laboratory led by Tess de Quincey which will explore improvisation from the perspective of a collective, which will culminate in a one-hour performance for audiences.

The Foul of the Air March 25 - 31 The Landlord will take place in an abandoned women's garment factory in Summer Hill, Living Room Theatre will explore a sound work without a score, a dance piece without steps, theatre without words.

Tra Mi Dinh's Holding March 12 - 13 will examine some of the ways humans grapple with being subjected to a cycle that can be ended only by an external source/instruction..

A Small Spectacle March 7 - 9 is a FREE online performance that will be live streamed. An eclectic mix of dance architecture, costume and sound. Phaedra Brown will explore the spectacle of the everyday, framed by the increasing influence of the common digital experience.

Inhabiting Erasures: Embodying traces of the feminine - March 27 Articulate Project Space. A multidisciplinary exhibition by Rakini Devi with live music by Dr Cat Hope, informed by ongoing research into the erasure of women through misogyny and violence.

Dance Cinema, 26 March Redfern Hall Remote. Dancing between the fifth wall. Award-winning dance films and documentaries that resonate themes of distance and connection (Lucy Doherty, Lux Eterna, Orion Mitchell & Nick Vela, Richard James Allen & Karen Pearlman, Corina Andrian (Red-Cor) Hadi Moussally,Tove Skeidsvoll and Klara Elenius) The panel discussion will involve several participating artists sharing their dance filmmaking practice and discuss the frameworks of screendance in this heavily digital world.

Numerous artists will undertake residences during March Dance 2021 including Emily Flannery, Lost all Sorts Collective, Wendy Yu, Holly Craig, Adam Warburton, Lucy Doherty, Evangelista, Lux Eterna, Gabriela Green Olea, Kay Armstrong, Roman Hassanin, Matt Cornell and Emma Fyshwick, Bonnie Curtis, Tra Mi Dinh, Patricia Wood, SXAE, Reina Takeuchi, Analogise Paul, Laura Osweiler and Coti Cibils.

The Right Foot and DirtyFeet will present a one day workshop in the Glebe Town Hall for people with and without disability. Special guest teachers from Down to Bhangra teaching Bollywood will join . Open to all levels of ability and suitable for low to moderate support needs, in an accessible venue which is Wheelchair accessible.

Constant Relay is a first-in-first-served, no application, short-form residency and exchange opportunity at ReadyMade Works. Artists will receive time in the studio bookended by encounters with fellow artists in residence, an informal opportunity to connect with other practitioners, share something about what they are working on or exchange ideas.

Body Traces is a two day workshop focusing on making large scale energetic transpositions from the body to page and back again, using both wet and dry mediums.

Kay Armstrong will host a Your Funny masterclass in which she will encourage others to find their own brand of funny as they come out from under the heavy blanket of 2020. All aimed fairly and squarely at finding your funny using the vehicle of dance.

Tickets and full program details available at marchdance.com.

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