With our Stage Partners, Witness has put together a program of Live Nights – basically, Book Club for theatre – throughout 2018. On Live Nights, Witness members book to see a show together, and then meet up afterwards to talk it over. It’s convivial, stimulating and fun.
Our experimental Live Night at Malthouse Theatre last year, with a group of about 30 people, was a huge success, and we’re excited about the shows we’ve got coming up this year. We can’t wait to share our program with you when we launch officially at the beginning of March.
For our first outing, we’re offering something a bit different. As part of our critical collaboration with Dancehouse around the Keir Choreographic Awards in March, we’ve programmed an extended Live Night, How To Like Dance With Witness.
Launched in 2014, the Keir Choreographic Award illuminates experimental choreographic practice in Australia. Eight artists are selected by a high-profile international jury to take part in the biennial competition, which is dedicated to the commissioning, presentation, promotion and dissemination of new Australian choreography.
The selected artists in 2018 are Amrita Hepi, Melanie Lane, Bhenji Ra, Nana Bilus, Luke George, Lilian Steiner, Prue Lang and Branch Nebula (Lee Wilson and Mirabelle Wouters). The eight finalists will present their new work at Melbourne’s Dancehouse on March 6–10, with four chosen to go on to a season at Carriageworks in Sydney on March 15–17 to compete for the $30,000 award and the $10,000 Audience Choice Award.
You can find out more about the award and the Dancehouse public program on the Dancehouse website.
Here’s the blurb for the Witness workshop:
Every work of art is an invitation, but sometimes we don’t know how to respond. We have expectations about what art is and what it expects from us, often without being conscious of them, that get in the way. Fully responding to work can be a process of unlearning, putting away our expectations so we can get closer to our own experience.
This is a workshop series for general audience members who would like to do some unlearning as they learn, programmed around the performances of the Keir Choreographic Awards. We’ll be beginning with some basic questions: What does it mean to be an audience member? How do we experience performance? And how do we articulate our experience afterwards?
How to Like Dance is for anyone, but maybe in particular it’s for people who are apprehensive about approaching contemporary dance and would like to find a way in.
For $60 you’ll get two workshops (one each with Alison and Rob), a post-show Live Night with both of us and a glass of wine, plus tickets to both programs of the KCA schedule on March 6 and 7. Places are very limited as we want to keep it intimate, so if you’re interested in coming book asap.
