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 

 

ABOUT PERTH FESTIVAL
Founded in 1953 by The University of Western Australia, Perth Festival is the longest running international arts festival in Australia and Western Australia’s premier cultural event. The Festival has developed a worldwide reputation for excellence in its international program, the presentation of new works and the highest quality artistic experiences for its audience. For 70 years, the Festival has welcomed to Perth some of the world’s greatest living artists and now connects with hundreds of thousands of people each year. Iain Grandage is the Artistic Director 2020–24. 

 

THE NINTH WAVE
What do you do when the world is ending? Party like its 1999! Beginning at a party bubbling over with champagne-drinking fools who wilfully ignore the warning signs of the end of the world, The Ninth Wave unfolds as a journey of consequences and the young hope that always grows from it. 

Against the stunning backdrop of the iconic City Beach, The Ninth Wave is an apocalyptic narrative by The Farm. 

Entwined with an original score composed and performed live by Ben Ely (Regurgitator), The Farm takes the ideas behind the 2016 Helpmann Award nominated The Last Blast to their fullest and most ominous end. This dance on a smoking volcano is the party to end all parties. 

The Farm would like to acknowledge the people of the Yugambeh language groups who are the traditional custodians of the land, and waterways in which this work was created on. They would like to acknowledge the original cast and creatives who helped create this work: Charles Ball, Essie Horn, Michael Smith, Gabriel Comeford, Hsin Ju, Gabrielle Nankivel, Craig Barry, Mark Howett, Luke Smiles, Ben Ely. 

 

CAST & CREW CREDITS
At The Farm, work is made in a collaborative process where everyone brings their expertise without being confined to it. All animals are equal.
The Farmers for The Ninth Wave are: 

Grayson Millwood
Gavin Webber
Kate Harman
Mark Howett
Luke Smiles
Ben Ely
Tyler Hill
Chloe Ogilvie
Co3 Artistic Director Raewyn Hill
Co3 Executive Director Alana Culverhouse 

 

THE FARM
With four decades between them, The Farm range from past Artistic Directors of state and federally funded organisations (Dancenorth - 2005 to 2009) to independent practitioners who have forged their own choreographic or design careers. 

Core to the organisation is an ‘artistic brains trust’, sharing the artistic vision between four key creatives - Chloe Ogilvie, Grayson Millwood, Kate Harman and Gavin Webber. Two other associated artists act as an artistic advisory panel - Michael Smith and Mindy Davies. 

These six passionate artists are diverse across age, gender, race and sexuality. Their roles within the company are flexible, challenging and thoroughly collaborative, giving older artists an opportunity to utilise their experience in an impactful way and empowering younger artists to become the new artistic leaders of their generation. 

The Farm’s artists come from the Pilbara, Rockhampton, Gladstone and Northern Rivers and have substantial careers based in regional Queensland. Many of them have also worked extensively between Europe and Australia, bringing the rigour of German thinking, the emotion of Australian storytelling and the visceral passion of Belgian dance into their work. This gives them the knowledge and ability to connect to a wide audience demographic, allowing them to create work that succeeds in cultural landscapes as diverse as Berlin and the Gold Coast. 

The mix of their experience is key to their operations, and their diversity is key to their art. 

 

Co3 CONTEMPORARY DANCE
Driven by excellence and collaboration, Co3 Contemporary Dance is a progressive platform for the exchange of ideas and stories that reflect the experiences of the WA community. With a multi-disciplinary and technological focus, the company presents an annual program of works with unique physicality and expression. They empower and inspire audiences and the next generation of artists through their pathways and engagement programs. 

Recent milestones include far reaching regional community engagement on Raewyn Hill’s THE BIRD MAKERS PROJECT, and ARCHIVES OF HUMANITY – a critically acclaimed World Premiere commissioned by Perth Festival and presented in 2021. 

Co3 are the dance company in residence at the State Theatre Centre of WA on the land of the Whadjuk Nyoongar people. 

 

SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook: @thefarmgoldcoast
Instagram: @_thefarm 

Image: Scott Belzner

15 November 2021