LIVEWORKS FESTIVAL: OPENING & CLOSING CEREMONY

Channelling mass into solo and a nation into a body, Opening & Closing Ceremony is a study in contrasts. Jane McKernan (of dance troupe The Fondue Set) was initially inspired by a photo of a woman featured in an East German Communist gymnastic display, and the resulting questions, “What’s she thinking? What’s she doing? Who are the people within the propaganda?” Other ideas of community, the spectacle (Ben Hur being a recent example), and patriotism soon followed. There is even a nod to Expo 88, “My family had a daggy party where we all dressed up as Australians. I was 10 or 11 and dressed up as Dame Edna Everage … my cousin who was six came as a Foster’s Can, my other cousin came as Captain Cook.” Those were the then-conceptions of what an ‘Australian’ character would be – although has much changed? “Is there a physical representation of what it means to be Australian? Going to the Big Day Out draped in a flag, maybe?” wonders McKernan. Combining dance with voice-overs and gymnastic-like displays, Opening & Closing Ceremony will be enjoying its first outing at Liveworks, a four-day festival exploring ‘liveness’ at Performance Space through the works of over 20 artists. Other stand-out sessions include A Comedy by Brown Council, Nicola Gunn’s psychological detective story At The Sans Hotel, a painful sounding Into/Out of Me, and rather mysterious one-on-one The Vorticist. While you’re at Performance Space, try and squeeze into Hold by David Cross – an inflatable fun house installation that will seriously test your faith in strangers.

Opening & Closing Ceremony: Nov 11 @ 4pm & Nov 12 @ 5pm, Liveworks: Nov 11-14, Performance Space, 245 Wilson St Eveleigh, $15-60 (festival pass), performancespace.com.au