Alison Currie, whose recent work was commissioned by the Australian Dance Theatre, is teaming up with award-winning soloist Yui Kawaguchi for Somewhere, Everywhere, Nowhere.
Using sound and light to highlight the distinctive techniques of each dancer, the production is described as “a collision between the everyday and imagined possibilities”.
Ms Kawaguchi is a Berlin-based Japanese dancer and choreographer who arrived in Australia last month, and is now rehearsing with the crew in Adelaide after enduring two weeks of quarantine.
"Berlin and Adelaide are two cities on opposite sides of the globe," Ms Kawaguchi told SBS Japanese.
"We are more digitally connected than ever before, while at the same time, people are becoming increasingly separated by location, proximity, political leanings, cultural history and language."
Somewhere, Everywhere, Nowhere explores these complicated relationships.
“We’ve been looking at the distance between us and our different perspectives on the world, like how the news in Berlin might be different to how the same news is reported in Australia or Tokyo. We’re playing on our similarities and differences, and conceptually what it means to change the senses,” Alison Currie said in a statement.
The pair began brainstorming two years ago, occasionally choosing a day and time to make a five-minute recording of whereever they were at the time. These spontaneous recordings have been adapted into the sound design for Somewhere, Everywhere, Nowhere.
"For me, when an image of dance comes into my mind, the colors of the lights and the stage set also come to life like a picture. It's part of the choreography," Ms Kawaguchi said.
Ms Currie also said, "The light sculpture is a way of physically connecting the two of us in the work."
"We’ve been working a lot with our set and lighting designer Fabian Bleisch and our sound designer Sascha Budimski. Fabian designed the lighting installation that we will also operate manually on the stage, and we’re looking forward to working with that because we think a lot of the choreography will be inspired by that,” Ms Kawaguchi said.
Mr Bleisch is Ms Kawaguchi's partner, and her reason for relocating to Berlin in 2002. When Ms Kawaguchi first made the move, her focus was on raising a family.
"I felt like I had done everything I could do with dance."
However, living in an environment where she could not speak the language, Kawaguchi soon realised that dance was her "identity" – a "survival tool" that allowed her to communicate and connect with others.
"The time off from dance, made me realise the necessity of it. I am here in Australia right now because of dance."
‘A critical moment for Australia’s engagement with Asia’
Launched in 2007, OzAsia Festival is held annually in Adelaide over three weeks in Spring, bringing together some of Asia’s most acclaimed theatre, dance, music, film and art.
“OzAsia Festival 2021 takes place at a critical moment for Australia’s engagement with Asia, and there’s no better time to ensure the people who best embody that connection – Australians of Asian background – lead the conversation," said Annette Shun Wah, the newly appointed artistic director, in a statement.
She said the festival presents a snapshot of what is happening in contemporary performance and the arts in Asia, while fostering collaborations between Asian and Australian artists.
“Most importantly the new thing of course is to ensure that there’s a strong representation of Asian-Australian work, because there’s a wealth of stories and a lot of rich material that really should be part of the festival.”
OzAsia Festival will take place in Adelaide from 21 October to 7 November. The full program can be found here.
Somewhere, Everywhere, Nowhere will run from 21-23 October. Leading up to the festival, Kawaguchi and Currie will be holding a choreography and composition masterclass on 15 October.
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