the foul of the air
Published: 21/04/21
Commentary
Charlotte Wood, author The Natural Way of Things
“a wild, hallucinatory, vivid and astonishing performance inspired by my novel The Natural Way of Things. Five double bass players, four dancer/performers, no script. I kept thinking Louise Bourgeois, Pina Bausch, dreams, One flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and everything being brought to the surface in Australia right now. Watching you with my heart in my mouth & guts churning was *exactly* what it felt like to write that book. Brava”.
“This was a very real performance; for want of a fancier word (but not really!), real is the only way to describe it.”
– Linda Badger
Read more: Dance Informa
“…these images, and materials, are outstanding in their conception and execution. The stage work, and direction, is precise and arresting with many distinct, stylistic moments.”
Geoffrey Sykes
Read more: Sydney Arts Guide
“These reviews are testament to your capacity to simultaneously fluidly weave and hold in place. Like others who have been present through just part of the creative process, I could discern some of the threads you have picked up and kept in your pocket until you found the place for them; and of course there are so many others from conversations and events you have had with others.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how the narratives of this culture and society do not grow our emotional muscles at all, leaving us flaccid and ill-equipped to be present to the daunting realities which demand our presence. Your work could not be further from this type of cultural irresponsibility”. – Professor Danielle Celermajer, Sydney Environment Institute. Author Summertime
“The beauty of the images made their incongruously poor circumstances acceptable, in turn making the foul of the air a timely work about how easily we become immune to the mistreatment of others, especially women, without becoming overly didactic.”
– Vicki van Hout
Read more: Form Dance
photo: Christopher Wright
image: Cloe Fornier, Imogen Cranna, Renata Commisso
wall markings: Lucy Baird