red shoes

Under Today preview 17 Oct 2009

2009-10-07T17:09:00.000-07:00

red shoes presents
one night only preview
of a new work

Under Today:
17 October 2009

Gosse St Park, Eastside
6pm
capacity 80 people only

Under Today straddles the space between the encircling bush and the urban grid. Through dance, media and sound the performance traces the points of tension, connection and loss in this place.

This new work is a development of the piece performed in Goyder Street Lane, Eastside for Shifting Ground (Art, Land, Culture, May 2007).

red shoes gratefully acknowledges the Sidney Myer Fund and Arts NT for funding the creative development of this work and the Alice Springs Town Council for assistance in presenting this preview.

red shoes profile

2009-10-07T17:05:00.000-07:00

Dani Powell started making performances in Central Australia in 2000. In 2001 she began a creative partnership with Emily Cox which they called red shoes: a project-based company dedicated to fostering new directions in contemporary performance and new artistic collaborations across artforms.

red shoes works outside traditional theatre spaces framing the landscape through hybrid compositions of sound, light, projection and movement-based performance, drawing audiences into a new appreciation of the physical and social environment.

‘Director Dani Powell has a consistent commitment to working out-of-doors and often in unexpected places, opening our eyes to the qualities of a place that we may take for granted, even devalue.’ (Alice Springs News, May 31, 2007)

red shoes has brought together numerous artists to collaborate on various projects over the years and has produced a place 2 (Alice Desert Festival, 2005, Adelaide Fringe 2006), a place 1 (J Bird’s space, Watch this Space, Alice Springs Festival, 2004), unspun (Larapinta hills, 2002), the red shoes (Old South Road, Ilparpa claypans, 2001).

‘Red Shoes attempts a genuine engagement with complex contemporary history, producing a work that springs perceptibly from the confines and opportunities of the town’s community and landscape.’ (RealTime, Oct/Nov 2005, review of a place)

Under Today is the first work of red shoes since 2006. The project brings together a new ensemble of creative artists, including two interstate collaborators.

Under Today project team

2009-10-07T16:53:00.000-07:00

Dani Powell (producer, animateur, director) holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Animateuring (Theatre) from the Victorian College of the Arts. Dani is the former Community Producer of Big hART’s Ngapartji Ngapartji project and was Assistant Director of touring production. Last year she was the Artistic Director of the Opening Ceremony of Art in the Heart. Dani established red shoes in 2000 and her independent works include the red shoes (2000), unspun (2002), upon a river, then we might sleep (ACCA, Melbourne, 2003), a place (Alice Desert Festival 2004, 2005, Adelaide Fringe 2006, under today, Shifting Ground, 2007).

Alexandra Gillespie (media artist) has worked in a range of contexts including public art, gallery exhibitions, architectural collaborations, performance and festivals. Her work has been exhibited in Australia, Asia, America and Europe. Recent works include media installation Collars, combining sound, sculptural form, and recorded memories exhibited at Canberra Contemporary Art Space 2009, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery 2009 and at the International Symposium of Electronic Arts (ISEA) Singapore 2008 and screen design for Ningenneh Tunapry permanent Indigenous gallery completed 2007, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Alexandra is currently a PhD candidate School of Art, Photography and Media Arts, ANU.

Guy Webster (sound artist) is a composer, songwriter, sound designer, performer and teacher. While his live performances have earned him a reputation as a prolific and inspiring songwriter, his work in interactive composition and sound design has featured in festivals, galleries, conferences and theatres in Australia, Japan, UK and Europe. In 2009 Guy realized a new approach to immersive sound design for theatre in a new play adapted from the Miles Franklin Award winning novel The White Earth by Andrew McGahan. This year also saw Guy premiere The Pineapple Queen by Lisa ONiell and Norman Price and complete a national regional galleries tour with interactive artwork Intimate Transactions; which received an Honorary Mention for Interactive Art in the Ars Electronica Festival 2005.

Miriam Bond (dancer/choreographer) trained as a dancer at the Victorian College of the Arts and has performed with contemporary dance companies and independent collectives in Australia and overseas. She has worked as a freelance teacher, performer and choreographer in Melbourne, Canberra and now Alice Springs.

Frances Martin (performer/maker) has a background in circus and physical theatre. Before moving to Alice Springs she worked as a Circus Trainer for Westside Circus in Melbourne and has been involved in the creation and production of several shows with Westside Circus as well as the developmentalshowing of Under Today and the Alice Springs Cabaret (2007 and 2008). She has just returned from Europe where she participated in the Interior Landscapes summer school with the Institute International de la Marionette in Charlevillemezieres.

Mariaa Randall (dancer/choreographer) is a Bundjalung woman from the Far North Coast of NSW and now lives in Alice Springs. Mariaa has completed a ‘Certificate of Attainment’ at the Redfern Dance Theatre, ’Certificate in Dance’ at the Conservatorium (Lismore, NSW) and is a graduate of the NAISDA Dance College’s ‘Diploma in Dance’.

red shoes ensemble also includes NIDA trained lighting designer Kallum Wilkinson and performers Kristy Schubert, Matty Day, Fina Po and young Arrernte performer Rita-Mae Ross. Consultants on the project include senior Arrernte women Kumalie Riley and Veronica Dobson and anthroplogist Mike Cawthorn.

new work from red shoes

2009-03-03T15:11:00.000-08:00

Under Today is an extension of the enquiry into the subject of place, history and memory, which Powell began investigating in her Post-Graduate Diploma at the VCA, from which she produced Upon a River and Then We Might Sleep. This work continued when she came back to Alice in 2004 at which time she instigated the 'place' project with red shoes. The work which was produced by red shoes over the next few years focused on the particular complexities of the urban landscape and social terrain of this remote, yet historically, culturally and geographically significant place.

Under Today was first conceived as part of Shifting Ground 2007: a two-week program of contemporary, visual artistic responses to site, place and community throughout the Alice Springs landscape. The developmental showing took audiences down a laneway and into backyards on the first residential grid on the east side of the dry Todd River (www.wts.org.au/alc/goyder.html).

The development of this work has been funded by Arts NT and the Myer Foundation and is a collaboration between local performers and creative artists and interstate artists who worked together on the seeding stage of this project for Shifting Ground.