CURRENT PRODUCTIONS
FROM AFAR ON A HILL
Every possession, every pay cheque, every home, symbolises how deserving you are as a person. From Afar on a Hill dives into the murky waters of entitlement, collective responsibility and immigration. In this playfully immersive performance, the audience is gently guided to the position of adjudicator… If they make the grade. From Afar on a Hill is the premiere season of a new work by prominent performance-maker choreographer Bianca Martin (WA) and collaborators, initiated as part of Copenhagen’s Dansehallerne SPOT ON platform in 2013 and developed at PICA in 2014 under the consultation of sociologist and academic Farida Fozdar and Steve Bull of pvi collective.
Presented by Company Upstairs and PICA
Director / Choreographer: Bianca Martin
Performers / Collaborators: Bernadette Lewis, Rhiannon Newton, Sarah Chaffey, Chris Cobilis
Sound Designer: Chris Cobilis
Creative / Research: Steve Bull, Farida Fozdar, Josephine Wilson, Chris Donnelly
Producer: Jenifer Leys
PREVIOUS PRODUCTIONS
PACKED LIKE SARDINES IN A FOOTBALL STADIUM
Mid length work
Premiere season, Blue Room Theatre, WA, 2007
Excerpt version, PICA, WA, 2012
WA choreographer Bianca Martin uses her unique brand of satire, drama and political symbolism to craft contemporary dance theatre work that is at once entertaining and provocative - challenging audiences to take a fresh look at their everyday lives and their place in Australian society.
Packed Like Sardines in a Football Stadium transforms familiar landscapes into unexpected, highly amusing scenes where Australian values are unhinged and collective assumptions are put under the microscope.
"At times it made me laugh out loud, at others I couldn't help but despair at the darker aspects of Australian culture this work revealed as bubbling quietly away...right under our noses" - feedback from audience member 2012.
HOME ALONE {the suburbs dream tonight}
Full length dance theatre work with three performers & one drummer
Premiere season, Rechabites Hall, Perth WA, Nov 2008.
Directed and choreographed by Bianca Martin
Delivering an abstract image of everyday life and contemporary Australian domestic normalcy, HOME ALONE (the suburbs dream tonight) places itself amid the proliferation of weekend do-it-yourself projects and debt consolidation.
It's a tale of gratification via material goods, a housing squeeze and life in the lucky country.
The performance wades through Australia's favourite pastimes via a mixture of hard-core dance theatre and impeccable percussive accompaniment.
THE BIKINI EYE SHORT SHOW {dressed to kill yourself}
30 minute mid-length dance theatre work with two performers and one mezzo-soprano
Premiere season, The Dolphin Theatre, WA 2011
The Bikini Eye Short Show (dressed to kill yourself) ponders what Australia has left without footy, backyard barbies and beer. Surely our culture is not as shallow as the rehashed icons and imagery we so often use to portray and promote ourselves?
Each performer plays a variety of Australian female character types, in an exploration of some of the murkier aspects of Australian culture, flipping our notions of Australian identity. The Bikini Eye Short Show (dressed to kill yourself) questions where Australian women fit into a culture obsessed with sport and its peripheral activities. By exploring gender stereotypes through Australian cultural values, the work questions our acceptance of such identities as quintessentially Australian. The Bikini Eye Short Show (dressed to kill yourself) is social commentary, provoking cultural debate and dialogue.