BE YOUR SELF
For the first time, the Australian Dance Theatre, under the guidance of Artistic Director and choreographer Garry Stewart, comes to Sydney with their emotional and highly experimental piece, Be Your Self.
The production is an exploration of what it means to be human through contemporary dance, spoken word, video installation, music and design.
“In Be Your Self the emotion and the physicality of the work are very intertwined from the get-go,” says dancer Jessica Hesketh. “There are a lot of sections where there are drastic changes of emotions just to show how short our attention span can be; how many emotions you can have in a single day.”
Stewart, who wrote the spoken word which features in the performance, undertook diverse research to put the piece together.
“He’s spoken to Buddhist monks, neurologists, physiologists and people from the medical university here in Adelaide,” says Hesketh.
The performance is a true collaboration. The set was designed by architectural firm, Diller, Scofidio + Renfro; American break-dancer, PoeOne has coached the dancers in his b-boy technique and the soundscape was created from recordings of the dancers in rehearsals.
“I think audiences, whether they go to see it as a conceptual piece or to see us throwing ourselves on the stage like maniacs, everyone will definitely get something out of it,” says Hesketh.
May 31-Jun 3, Sydney Theatre, 22 Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay, $30-60, 9250 1999, sydneytheatre.org.au
