Japanese Club Night
The Studio
Sydney Opera House
Fri 29 & Sat 30 September, 10pm

After a unique international interchange between Kansai and Sydney, six of Japan’s hottest dance artists will go head-to-head with five local choreographers, in a no-holds-barred battle for your dancefloor delight.

The Sydney based choreographers are The Fondue Set (Elizabeth Ryan, Jane McKernan & Emma Saunders) -  and Dean Walsh and Martin del Amo. The Japanese choreographers are Masanori Hoshika and Saori Takahashi (Honeysuckle), Natsuko Tezuka and Pop butoh group Hanaarashi.

With live music from members of Regurgitator and The Bird mashed up with DJs including Seymour Butts and VJs, The Studio will turn into a cozy little club space with a bar, upstairs seating and downstairs dancefloor, so you can dance, watch or just plain party.

Artistic Director David Bonney | Musical Director Ben Walsh

This project is part of the Australian Japan Dance Exchange 2006 co-ordinated by Hirano Productions (Australia) & Japan Contemporary Dance Network (Japan), brought to you by the Australia-Japan Year of Exchange, Japan Foundation, Bunka-cho, The Australia Council, The Studio, Dancebox (Osaka), City of Sydney, Arts NSW, Onextra and Critical Path.

Fiona Malone | Kay Armstrong | Liz Lea

Solo Series #2 was the second program of solo dance performances, recently Produced by Onextra in association with Performance Space.

Fiona Malone in Reticence
This new solo work, created and performed by Fiona Malone, explores a darker space...the state of being unwittingly silenced...a forced state of refraine.

Kay Armstrong in a.k.a
Two years of Flamenco, one series of Australian Idol and a stand-up who's trying to give-up...a.k.a..three new short works by Kay Armstrong that promise to deliver some good old-fashioned fun.

Liz Lea in DhIVA
A work of high energy and wild juxtaposition created by Canada's Roger Sinha for explosive dancer Liz Lea. A comic and wildly theatrical work that explores the harmony and dissonance created when East and West collide.

29 June - 10 July 2005

Acclaimed choreographer/dancer Narelle Benjamin, one of the original founders of the Chunky Move Dance Company has astonished audiences in the past with her talent as highly elastic dancer with exceptional capability to reshape and contort her body. Her first live work with Onextra, Inside Out, was a hit with audiences in 2003. In Out of Water, Narelle has created a work for her dancers Kristina Chan, Lina Limosani and Kathy Cogill where yoga and dance influences collide as the performers explore the relationships between bodies, light and sound.

The other performance on the bill is Grounded on Air, devised and performed by masterful performer Dean Walsh. Dean has been involved in the last few years with British Dance Company DV8 and has toured the UK and Europe. Dean was guest artist in 2002 in the Australian Dance Theatre's production, The Age of Unbeauty for which he received the Australian Dance Award for Most Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer. In Grounded on Air, Dean drapes himself in pleasure - the need for it....blinded by it....the queer in it....chemically enhancing it....learning to trust it.

27 April - 8 May, 2005

The Fondue Set are bound by an oath to make dance exciting, appealing and (almost) accessible. Watch as they weave an intricate maze of choreography using satin, sequins and silver high heels in The Set (Up). Big preparations for nothing!

During the past 18-months The Fondue Set have traversed the globe, performing in the great metropolises of London, Amsterdam, Paris, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, and now, FINALLY, they're back in Sydney.

Since hitting the Sydney dance scene in 2000, The Fondue’s (Jane McKernan, Elizabeth Ryan, and Emma Saunders), have made a name for themselves with their edgy, comic and idiosyncratic approach to choreography. As with their previous works: Evening Magic (2001) Love & Other Indoor Sports (2001) Soft Cheese (2002) and Blue Moves (2003), The Set (Up) is a highly accessible, uncannily funny and undeniably original piece of work.

The Set (Up) was originally developed during a residency at the Australian Choreographic Centre in Canberra late 2004. Since their Canberra success they have been working with British choreographer Wendy Houstoun (ex-DV8 and current member of Forced Entertainment). With support from Onextra, Performance Space and the Department of Performance Studies at the University of Sydney, they have re-worked The Set (Up) for its Sydney premiere at Performance Space.
 

Saturday 4th December, 2004
In the village of Hill End, NSW.

So what attracted a choreographer to Hill End?

• Choreographed and devised by Kay Armstrong
  In collaboration with..
• dramaturg Nikki Heywood
• designer Imogen Ross
• composer Gary Bradbury
• lighting designer Simon Wise
• Produced by One Extra

A coffin… a dirt overcoat... an earthy embrace... an exploration of the evil that dwells beneath the innocuous, the trusted and the innocent...

• Choreographed by Narelle Benjamin
• Performed by Clare Holland & Kristina Chan

An intimate journey for one... in a dance for two...

A celebrated choreographer/director of dance film, Inside Out is Narelle Benjamin's first live work. A dance of introspection, it charts a reflective and intimate journey, explored through a fascinating fusion of yoga and contemporary dance.

• Choreographed and performed by Michael Whaites and Michael O'Donoghue

A game of boys... waiting... reading body language and waiting...

Sydney's Michael Whaites and Hobart's Michael O'Donoghue have created an intimate dance theatre work about moments in the lives of two guys who've been around the block. In Waiting for Michael, their first collaboration, they explore the intimacy and mystery of our private and public selves.