Presented with Arts House
Monolith
Joel Bray Dance
- Dance
- Premiere
- Performance
60 minutes
RISING subscriber presale Friday 10AM
Tickets onsale Monday 17 March 10AM
Moving yet unmovable—colonised bodies become powerful sites of silent protest in the premiere of Joel Bray’s latest major dance work.
Muscular and sinewy, these are five fierce Brown women presenting themselves as an obstacle and as resistance. They are a monolith. An enormous ancient rock formation, coming together and apart. Sitting strong in the landscape, defying waves of colonisation, urbanisation and deforestation. Alive on a floating dystopian island, designed by artist Jake Preval. Dancing to delicate and driving beats by composer Matthias Shack-Arnott. Creating their own choreographic language.
This is an undeniable new work from Wiradjuri artist Joel Bray that echoes and honours generations of protest and rebellion.
“In the centre of the awkward, beautiful ritual of Bray's dance, something alive is stubbornly beating. Something like hope.”
Artistic Team
Joel Bray
Zoe Brown-Holten, Samakshi Sidhu, Katherine Hegeman, Nadiyah Akbar, Tamara Bouman (original devising cast member), Chloe Young
Matthias Schack-Arnott
Jake Preval
Katie Sfetkidis
Amy Cater
Tony Briggs
Uncle Christopher Kirkbright
Veronica Bolzon
Luke Fryer
Siobhan McKenna
Supporters
The Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body; the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria; the Major Festivals Initiative Seed Funding; The Queensland Performing Arts Centre; and through the First Nations New Work Platform – an initiative of BlakDance and the Abbotsford Convent made possible with the support of the Australian Government’s Indigenous Languages and Arts Program, the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, Arts House and Dancehouse.
Image Credits
PHOTO: Tamarah Scott & Davey Simmons