Media Release | The Ninth Wave

The visually striking and wildly physical spectacle The Ninth Wave crashes onto our shores to swamp Perth Festival audiences in a thrilling post-apocalyptic dance frenzy.

On the broad expanse of the iconic City Beach, dancers from Gold Coast dance collective The Farm will join local Co3 Contemporary Dance performers to bring this evocative and high-energy story to life to a pulsating original score by Ben Ely of Regurgitator. From your seat on the edge of the sand, take in the expansive Indian Ocean and the open performance space of the beachfront, where the pounding waves will enhance the soundscape driving on the urgency of the eight adult dancers and eight children. 

In a mysteriously ruined environment of half-buried cars, lampposts, ladders and other detritus, The Ninth Wave begins at a party bubbling over with champagne-drinking fools wilfully ignoring warning signs about the end of the world. They take a journey of dire consequences, from which emerges the young hope of the next generation. 

As a collective, The Farm designed and performed this dystopian dance party on a smoking volcano as a world premiere at Surfer’s Paradise beach for the 2018 Commonwealth Games. 

The Farm says: ‘In our previous visits to Perth, we’ve always come to a theatre but this time we’ve decided to perform a show on your beaches because we’ve heard they’re pretty good and there's some wicked ice cream shops close by. 

So even though our beaches are nicer than your beaches (kidding, we’re kidding! Jeez . . .) and you can’t get your sun to go down on the right side — which means we have to wait an extra half hour for it to get dark over there — we’re pumped to take the journey across our sunburnt country and deliver an evening of thrills, spills and maybe even a message or two, for Perth Festival 2022.’ 

Artistic Director Iain Grandage says: ‘The Nine Wave is a cracking, high-energy work from a group of wonderfully imaginative and engaging artists working alongside our own Co3 Contemporary Dance. We are thrilled to be able to host this cross-continental collaboration where the dancers will be kicking up the sand with muscles of steel on the edge of ocean in line with our Wardan (Ocean) theme.’ 

WHAT: The Ninth Wave
WHERE: Mooro / City Beach
WHEN: Tue 1, Wed 2, Thu 3, Fri 4, Sat 5 March 8pm
HOW MUCH: $29
BOOKINGS AND FESTIVAL INFO: perthfestival.com.au 

Click here for images. For further information, interviews or images please contact: 

Stephen Bevis
+61 8 6488 8618 / 0448 927 281
sbevis@perthfestival.com.au

Lauren Papendorf
+61 8 6488 2000 / 0414 050 846
lpapendorf@perthfestival.com.au 

Image: Scott Belzner