ENCOUNTER, presented in Sydney Festival 2020, Image: Heidrun Löhr
ENCOUNTER was presented in Sydney Festival on January 10-12, 2020.
This epic project was commissioned and produced by FORM Dance Projects (Western Sydney) in partnership with FLING Physical Theatre and Sydney Youth Orchestras. Created by an incredible creative team including Director/Choreographer Emma Saunders, Writer Felicity Castagna, and Composers Jodi Phillis and Amanda Brown, the work featured 8 performers from the FLING Company, alongside 9 young performers from Western Sydney and 50 young performers from Western Sydney Youth Orchestra.
ENCOUNTER is a site specific work of joy, exploring the everyday extraordinariness of being young, created with and about young people from Parramatta, Western Sydney and the Bega Valley in regional NSW.
Developed over a two year period, the project is a fantastic model of a significant regional - metropolitan partnership, with multiple points of engagement and performance outcomes across both regions, and the development of meaningful connections between the FLING and FORM performers, and the creative team and partnering organisations.
This epic project was commissioned and produced by FORM Dance Projects (Western Sydney) in partnership with FLING Physical Theatre and Sydney Youth Orchestras. Created by an incredible creative team including Director/Choreographer Emma Saunders, Writer Felicity Castagna, and Composers Jodi Phillis and Amanda Brown, the work featured 8 performers from the FLING Company, alongside 9 young performers from Western Sydney and 50 young performers from Western Sydney Youth Orchestra.
ENCOUNTER is a site specific work of joy, exploring the everyday extraordinariness of being young, created with and about young people from Parramatta, Western Sydney and the Bega Valley in regional NSW.
Developed over a two year period, the project is a fantastic model of a significant regional - metropolitan partnership, with multiple points of engagement and performance outcomes across both regions, and the development of meaningful connections between the FLING and FORM performers, and the creative team and partnering organisations.
The FLING Company was incredibly lucky to make it to Sydney for ENCOUNTER, as the tour dates fell in the midst of the Black Summer Bushfires that encircled the Bega Valley in Dec 2019 - Jan 2020. In the days leading up to the tour our entire region was in severe danger, with vast devastation to the land, homes and properties. Some of the homes of the performers and their families were being directly threatened by the fires and all roads out of the Bega Valley were closed as the fires closed in around us.
On the verge of cancellation, and after many days of sensitive negotiation with families to establish that we would only travel if advised it was safe to do so, we managed to take advantage of a window of safe travel to depart for Sydney. When the FLING performers arrived at the park to meet the FORM dancers, they fell into each others arms, full of emotion, some tears, grateful to be safe and to have made it to Parramatta.
We are incredibly proud of the FLING Company performers who worked incredibly hard and put in stellar performances in this work, and all at a time of incredible difficulty for our entire community. A huge thank you also to all their families, for trusting that we could go ahead with this tour and ensure everyone was safe and supported throughout.
ENCOUNTER, presented in Sydney Festival 2020, Image: Heidrun Löhr
ENCOUNTER SOUTH
ENCOUNTER follows the success of ENCOUNTER SOUTH, presented as part of Four Winds Spring Music Festival in November 2019. The Four Winds Soundshell and surrounds at Barraga Bay in the Bega Valley was the site of the first development of the project, and a number of sections of the work were directly inspired and informed by the incredible natural beauty and physical characteristics of the site. ENOUNTER SOUTH was shortlisted for an Australian Dance Award for Outstanding achievement in Youth Dance in 2019.
ENCOUNTER SOUTH, presented at Four Winds Spring Music Festival, Images Heidrun Löhr
ENCOUNTER PROJECT ARTISTS
Director: Emma Saunders
Associate Artist: Rob McCredie
Writer: Felicity Castagna
Composers: Jodi Phillis & Amanda Brown
Orchestrator: Jessica Wells
WSYO Conductor: James Pensini
Visual Artist: David Capra
Dancers: Sarah Kalule, Lawrencea Mateariki, Sabrina Muszynski, Joshua O’Connor, Naomi Reichardt, Feras Shaheen, Caylan Spendlove, Xara Zaineddine
& FLING Physical Theatre: Esme Barker, Ebony Constable, Gabriela Green Olea, Ebony Ryan-Miners, Lara Scrivens, Bodhi Turner, Rory Warne, Luca Yi
Musicians: Western Sydney Youth Orchestra
Spoken Word: Pola Fanous
ABOUT FORM DANCE PROJECTS
FORM Dance Projects is a dynamic hub for Australian contemporary dance based in Parramatta. Since 2011 FORM has grown into one of Australia’s leading dance presenters. Its aim is to support Australian choreographers in all stages of their career, develop artists’ national profiles, provide professional development opportunities, engage with the local community in meaningful ways, including Western Sydney young people and cultural performers, and connect with audiences.
FORM’s program encompasses successfully commissioning and producing genre-defying large-scale festival productions with the aim to provide professional development for artists, create opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaborations and develop new audiences. The first production was PUNCTURE, directed by Patrick Nolan, commissioned by FORM Dance Projects and co-produced with Legs on the Wall and Vox, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs delighting critics and audiences with its mix of choral music, physical theatre and contemporary dance. This was followed by commissioning and producing CHAMPIONS, directed by Martin del Amo, positioning 11 highly skilled female dancers into a football stadium to challenge pervasive notions of who qualifies as a champion. Martin del Amo won the 2018 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance for CHAMPIONS.
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