A body remembering what words cannot carry

by Michelle St Anne
with Jim Denley, Daniel Raymond, Alex Tucker & David Turner

This is not a story told.
It is something endured.

Come closer.

A garment holds what cannot be spoken: fragments, objects, traces that move with her as if they are not entirely her own.

Before she can be heard, it must be removed.

What follows is not confession, but process.

Built on the principle of ostinato—a persistent, repeating pattern—the work unfolds through cycles of gesture, sound, and action. Objects are handled, repeated, displaced. Language fractures into breath, into rhythm, into silence.

A system takes shape: one that counts, organises, absorbs, and continues.

The work is lit and structured through acts of looking.
Visibility is controlled, partial, and imposed.

The body is revealed, reduced, and framed within a field shaped by the male gaze—a perspective that positions women as objects to be seen, rather than agents to be followed.

What is shown is not neutral.
What is unseen remains carried.

Created and performed by Michelle St Anne, with a live ensemble featuring Jim Denley, Daniel Raymond and Alex Tucker, OSTINATO is a rigorous negotiation between sound and body, structure and rupture, control and release.

The audience is not separate from the work.
They move within it, positioned not just as witnesses, but as participants within a system of looking.

What does it mean to stay with what is difficult?
And what becomes possible when we do?

“For those who share histories like mine—I hold you close.
It is not our shame.”
— Michelle St Anne

This is not a passive viewing experience.
It is an act of witnessing.

Tickets: $40 / $25