THE STIRRING
...one of the most haunting and captivating dance performances I have ever encountered.
Daily Telegraph - Shoba Rao, November 2007
presented by Performance Space at
CarriageWorks
8-17 November 2007
Choreography & Performance Henrietta Baird, Tess de Quincey, Victoria Hunt, Oguri, Alan Schacher
Sound Installation Natasha Anderson
Lighting Travis Hodgson
Costumes Lian Loke
Installation Tess de Quincey and Jiggajigga
Vocal Contributions ABC Radio Documentary ‘Remembering Eveleigh’. Indigenous voices Alan Madden and Greg Simms interviewed and recorded by Henrietta Baird; Language contributions Bilbi Indigenous Language Institute – words from Christopher Kirkbright, voice Louise Hamilton.
Sound Contribution Toy piano played by Anthony Pateras
Indigenous Research Assistance Uncle Alan Madden, Uncle Greg Simms, Clarence Clockee, Shane Phillips, Lily Shearer
Concept & Direction Tess de Quincey
photos Mayu Kanamori and Heidrun Lohr
The Stirring brings an industrial environment to life as a place with a layered human history. It is a new site-specific work created at CarriageWorks as part of Performance Space’s inter-cultural program in November 2007. Performances will lead audiences in and around the buildings in a labyrinth of experience shaped by dance, light, installation and sound.
The new CarriageWorks centre for contemporary performance at Sydney’s Eveleigh railway workshops occupies one of Australia’s most important sites of industrial heritage. The workshops were the heart of the NSW transport system for over a hundred years and the hub of an exceptionally diverse and active local community. The industrial skeleton both reveals and obscures a European and Indigenous social history. The CarriageWorks was launched in January 2007 and De Quincey Co is delighted to be the first performance group to create and present a work in direct response to the site’s riches and its embodied history.
…This is a beautiful and unusual work, with excellent performances by the five dancers and some wonderful visual art as well. THE STIRRING is a kind of sensual history exhibition, tapping into not only the industrial past of the space, but also something more ancient in the soul. Australian Stage – Tessa Needham, November 2007
The production highlights renowned Body Weather artists – Japanese dancer Oguri from Los Angeles (first time to Australia) and Australian performers Tess de Quincey, Peter Fraser (Melbourne) Victoria Hunt – combined with celebrated performance-maker Alan Schacher and First Nations Kuku Yalanji dancer Henrietta Baird from far north Queensland, alongside leading Melbourne sound artist Natasha Anderson and lighting designer Travis Hodgson beside Sydney-based designer/costume maker Lian Loke.
As a new wave of inhabitation, work and cultural activity commences at Eveleigh, De Quincey Co is aiming to look beyond the CarrigeWorks buildings, machinery and relics to uncover the intrinsic resonance and the intangible human history which unfolds into the broader community holding Eveleigh’s past, present and future.
REVIEWS
Review Australian Stage click HERE
Review Daily Telegraph click HERE
Review Sydney Morning Herald click HERE
