2017 – a year of growth and partnership

The first 18 months of Co3 Contemporary Dance, WA’s flagship contemporary dance company, has delivered opportunities for artists and audiences to further grow contemporary dance in Western Australia. In this short time, the company has engaged over 100 artists and attracted more than 16,000 people to the artistic and engagement programs.

 

Reflecting on Co3 Contemporary Dance’s first full program in 2016 Artistic Director Raewyn Hill says: “2016 was such a massive year for this little company. I am constantly in awe of the commitment and dedication of the team around me from our small admin team to the Company artists and the Act-Belong-Commit Co:Youth ensemble members. I’m so proud to be the founding Artistic Director of Co3 and in a year where I presented my first full length work for the Company, and our Youth present their own performance season at the Dolphin Theatre, we are ready to take 2017 head on and continue to offer a full program for dancers and dance lovers of all ages.”

 

2017 will be Co3’s second full artistic program, with a focus on partnerships in creating and presenting new works, we continue to lay the foundations for opportunities to engage with dance in Perth and beyond. Company dancers will be split across a variety of projects and we invite local, national and international artists into the Co3 creative team.

 

As resident company at the State Theatre Centre of Western Australia, Co3 will be presenting two new works in 2017. The Company partners with The Farm Directors Gavin Webber and Grayson Millwood on Frank Enstein, a new work that will have its world premiere at the 2017 Bleach* Festival on the Gold Coast, before heading to Perth for a public and schools season. With a cast of Co3 dancers and The Farm collaborators, Frank Enstein is a retelling of the classic tale for children and adults – magical dance-theatre illuminating a path to self-acceptance. This is theatre as if made by Michel Gondry, handcrafted and full of the love of old fashioned techniques.

 

In September, Co3 returns to the Health Ledger Theatre with THE ZONE, an explosive dance work that explores the notion of community forming in extraordinary circumstances. Profound yet playful, the performance chronicles the creation of community told through Hill’s stunning movement language. Artistic Director and choreographer Raewyn Hill will be joined again by music collaborator Eden Mulholland to play the live score, and world renowned Japanese architect Satoshi Okada will join the creative team as set designer.

 

Of the mainstage artistic program, Artistic Director Raewyn Hill says: “In Co3’s second annual program we continue to explore partnerships and welcome some of the best makers and artists from around the world. Following on from an Asialink residency to Tokyo Wonder Site, Tokyo in mid 2016, I am thrilled to be working with the incomparable architect Satoshi Okada for my next full length work, THE ZONE. As Co3 continues to grow, these collaborations and partnerships allow the company to not only bring some of the world most renowned artists to Perth but gives us flexiblity in our artistic presentations each year”.

 

2017 will see the continuation of Reason for Being, a partnership with the Art Gallery of Western Australia. This residency has been popular with visitors to the gallery this year with more than 5,000 people visiting the gallery view the company in action and engage with the creative process along the way. The first Reason for Being in 2017 will be in February and throughout the year Raewyn will invite several WA artists to join her in the development of work in response to the Sate Collection and the architecture of the building.

 

Co3 is excited to be collaborating with Sydney Dance Company on a new work made especially for Primary-school-aged children. This collaboration with Sydney Dance Company, Crazy Times by the brilliant choreographer Anthony Hamilton and dramaturg Matthew Whittet, will premiere in March at the Sydney Opera House, with a Perth and regional Western Australian season to be announced in early 2017.

 

Also in 2017, Co3 invites the prolific WA artist and dance maker, Chrissie Parrott to the Co3 artistic family to develop her most recent work, Elk. “I am passionate about creating an ongoing opportunity to support WA artists to develop a new work for the company,” says Raewyn Hill. “In 2017 Co3 launches Co: Lab as a way to begin to support choreographic voices of the local independent dance community in Perth. We also welcome the inaugural Co:Lab artist Tyrone Robinson to the Co3 family in early 2017.”

 

This nurturing is again reflected in the strengthening of the Act-Belong-Commit Co:Youth Ensemble, the centrepiece of the company’s community engagement program. The Act-Belong- Commit Co:Youth ensemble offers 60 young dancers regular training and development and have three performance outcomes next year including a new co presentation with companies LINK and Tracksuit. In 2016 the Elite Training Squad was introduced and was offered to 20 of the most promising young dancers with a focus on technical development, strength and conditioning.

 

The company’s community engagement program in 2017 with a remounted tour of Paper Scissors Rocket! created by independent WA artists, UnKempt Dance, which will be performed alongside Barking Gecko Theatre Company’s presentation of Saltbush at the State Theatre Centre of WA in July.

 

For full program details, including the full community engagement program, see co3.org.au

 

2017 Program

Frank Enstein

Made by The Farm in collaboration with Co3 Contemporary Dance

Presented by Co3 Contemporary Dance, The Farm and Bleach* Festival

Wed 5-Sat 8 April, 7.30pm

Wed 5 April, 1pm (School Matinee)

Thurs 6 & Fri 7, 11am (School Matinees)

Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre of WA Tickets from $25

THE ZONE

Thurs 7–Sat 16 September, 7.30pm

Fri 8, Tues 12, Thurs 14 September, 11am (School Matinees)

Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA Tickets from $40

TWO SHOW PACKAGE: Buy both Frank Enstein and THE ZONE and save! Premium $90 / A Reserve $80 / Concession $55

Single tickets on sale from 16 January All tickets available through Ticketek: ticketek.com.au

For all media enquiries, please contact: Georgia Malone, Marketing & Communications Manager

M 0411 100 340

E georgia@co3.org.au

 

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