MELANIE LANE
Personal Effigies
Personal Effigies
Concept/choreography: Melanie Lane
Performers: Melanie Lane, Chris Clark
Music: Chris Clark
Costume Design: Paula Levis
Personal Effigies is a synthesis of constructed bodies for a singular body, drawing from avatars, puppets, dolls and effigies. Lived experiential histories and fantasies of a future body come to form a series of imaginary archetypes that examine the boundaries of the animate and inanimate. Dressing and undressing the body speaks to how we seek out echoes, replicas and transformations of ourselves as we attempt to navigate the increasingly slippery ecologies that we inhabit. How do we design our shells, conjure our ghosts or distill our souls? In collaboration with musician Chris Clark and costume designer Paula Levis, a storytelling of romance and morbidity unfolds. The artificial and the natural, intimacy and its melancholic impossibility, are negotiated in this solo dance.
MELANIE LANE is a Javanese/Australian choreographer and performer. Her choreographic practice examines the body in negotiation with materiality, physical histories and training methods. Based in Europe from 2000–2014, Melanie worked with artists such as Arco Renz, Club Guy and Roni, and Tino Seghal performing internationally. In 2015, Melanie was appointed resident director at Lucy Guerin Inc. and has created new works for Chunky Move and Sydney Dance Company. Melanie has established a repertory of works presenting in international festivals and venues such as Tanz im August, Uzes Danse Festival, Arts House Melbourne, O Espaco do Tempo, Festival Antigel, Dance Massive and HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin. She has been artist in residence at Dock 11 Berlin, Tanzwerkstatt Berlin and Schauspielhaus Leipzig. As a teacher, she has taught for companies such as Carte Blanche Norway, Sasha Waltz and Guests, Chunky Move, Danish Dance Theatre and Skanes Dansteater among others.
Dancehouse, Melbourne - March 2018 - all rights reserved
Documentation by Cobie Orger.