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Works in Progress by Master of f i ne Arts s tudents

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w i th guests leanne Aingelstein Rebecca Voudell and th i rd year dance graduates . The Stud i o . OUT Cultural Prec i nc t. Gardens Theatre . 1g - 20 Houember 2002

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IHTROOUCTIOH TO UfRGf

Welcome to Verge, five short works in progress which provide a glimpse into the mid-way point of the creative journey of three very different Master of Fine Arts (Dance) students.

Russe ll Milledge continues his exploration of mixed media and live performance in collaboration with dancer/choreographer Rebecca Youdell, in Bridge Song #2. This work was begun earlier in the year and the first stage shown in our mid-year post- graduate season In the Event of Fire. Russell's work is framed by an interdiscipli- nary and environmental art practice. In this second stage of Bridge Song

, Russell

undertakes a metaphorical and political investigation of the bridge theme, with its specific meanings and inherent/imagined social identities and ecological edges.

Wendy McPhee, an acclaimed solo performer, is informed in her contemporary live

practice by the genres of cabaret, sideshow, burlesque and erotica. Both works in

the program aim to dissolve the boundaries between performer and audience,

implicating the latter in the intimate world of the former. Lady in Red -Anastasia

was recently performed in the Tiny Top (a side show tent) at the Melbourne

International Festival. Wendy's other work in this program

, Recipe for Double

Happiness, in collaboration with dance graduating student Ly Ly Tran, continues to

deconstruct and reconstruct the world of the performer and her relationship to the

viewer.

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Five graduating students of the BFA program, on the verge of entering the profes- sion, have also contributed to this season in presenting a group devised work which encapsulates the culmination of 3 intense years of training together. The initiative and drive these students have shown in wishing to share an emerging work only 3 days after finishing their Graduation Season Soar augurs well for a dynamic future for these committed graduates. Their collaboration with music student Yanto Browning is the product of an ongoing relationship between this talented composer and dance, which is highly valued by creative industries.

Integral to the creative team for

Verge

are lighting designers Andrew Haden and Crystal MacFarlane, and Stage Manager Olivia Millard, both of whom have become

'

regulars

' for our post-graduate showings. Thank you to them and the crew who

only had one long day to set up and prepare the theatre, under the experienced direction of senior theatre technicians Chris Dickey and Graham Menzies.

The informal post-graduate showings, of which

Verge

is the third, are not only an important in their primary purpose of providing a platform for the creative research of our MFA students, but also for the participation of independent artists across disciplines and for building a bridge between the post-graduate and undergraduate areas of the dance programs.

Please join us for a drink after the performance. The creators and performers would appreciate feedback and discussion of their work as they move into extending their creative concepts further next year.

Associate Professor Cheryl Stock

Head of Dance, Post-graduate Coordinator

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AHASTASIA - The LAOY i n RfO

Anastasia is a Princess from Russia - she thinks. She is presently telling fortune

s

but she is also very good at selling products door-to-door, offering divine spiritual guidance and targeting wealthy men with large bank accounts.

Co-creator/performer: Wendy McPhee Co-creator: Richard Vella

Music: Nino Rota (played by The Umbrellas)

OIFFfRfHT OfGREES OF SfPARATIOH

This abstract dance work was inspired by selected poem

s of Rumi, translated by

Coleman Barks.

Choreography

: Leanne Ringel stein and Hsin-Yi Lin

Performer: Hsin-Yi Lin

Music: Reich Remixed (track

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Grinning Cat, Susumu Yokata (tracks 5, 13)

STEP

'One movement of the foot ahead in walking, running or dancing; a pace, grade or

degree; a stage toward a goa l. One tread of

a stair'

Webster's International Dictionary

Choreographed by the performers with contributions from Tracey Holden and Chia-Tsen Sun

Performers: Jade Dibblee, Louise Hartm

ann, Elise May, Miki Nemoto, Hong-Chin

Neo

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INTERVAL ( 10 minutes)

BRIDGE SOHG #2

In this work the video image of a bridge about to collapse is a metaphor to illustrate the fragile relationship between humanity and the Earth. This image is linked to other visual and aural statements in a performance discussion politicising a body and surround in crisis.

Direction and realisation: Russell Milledge

Choreography in collaboration with Rebecca Youdell

Sound: Russell Milledge with voices by Jondi Keane and Rebecca Youdell Performer: Rebecca Youdell

RECIPE for DOUBLE HAPPIHESS

The heart weighs one quarter the amount of the brain - yet the heart is often heavier.

If

you bypass the brain and go straight to the heart it can cause an illusion known as happiness.

Creator/performer: Wendy McPhee Performer: Ly Ly Tran

Dramaturge: Richard Vella

Music: Prokofiev, Sammy Cahn

&

Nicholas Brodsky, Burt Bacharach

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BIOGRAPHIES:

Hsin-Yi Lin

Hsin-Yi is currently undertaking her Master of Fine Arts in contemporary dance performance at Queensland University of Technology. She began studying dance in pre-school and studied in the dance division through primary and high school at the Taoyuan High School in Taiwan. In 200 I, Hsin-Yi graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Dance) from QUT. Throughout her tertiary education, Hsin-Yi has been actively involved in many performances working with both Australian and international choreographers including Leigh Warren, Chrissie Parrott, Csaba Buday, Natalie Weir, Rosalind Crisp, John Utans, Peter Furness, Tiina Ali- Haapla, Jean Tally and Susan Wang. In 200 I, Hsin-Yi performed Traffic with Rosalind Crisp and Om eo Dance at the Brisbane Powerhouse. In the same year, Hsin- Yi participated in the QUT/ LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts cultural exchange, performing John Utan's Number.

14: Notebooks in Singapore and Brisbane.

Wendy McPhee

Over the past two decades Wendy has been performing and developing a theatrical vision that blends dance, theatre, cabaret, circus and sideshow. Her early involvement in theatre was stimulated by impromptu backyard performances and, at the tender age of II, she made her debut as a Sugar Plum Fairy. Her interest in the female grotesque took shape at the Australian Ballet School from which she graduated in 1981. In 1982 she joined Mantis, one of Britain's most avant-garde contemporary dance companies and since then she has held positions as performer, rehearsal director and project organiser with contemporary dance and circus companies. Wendy formed softcore inc. in 1995 as a vehicle for her own performance work and has received wide acclaim for her edgy, unsettling one-woman shows. She also collaborates with artists from different disciplines producing installations, exhibitions and events. She recently performed Lady in Red at the Melbourne Festival 2002 and is currently undertaking a Master of Fine Arts at QUT. Her next solo show is Double Happiness.

Russell Milledge

Russell Milledge's practice is focused around intermedia collaborations, performance and intercultural exchange. Russell has received numerous awards across the fields of performing arts, new media and visual arts; including the first Asia! ink interdisciplinary residency, a Silicon Studios Training Centre scholarship in 3D animation, Australian Network for Art &

Technology scholarship in multimedia. He has also received funding from The Australia Council, the Lee Foundation, Arts Queensland, Cairns City Council, Townsville City Council and Mareeba Shire Council. Russell is principal design artist and co-artistic director

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in the collections of The Queensland Art Gallery and Cairns Regional Gallery amongst others. He is well known for his involvement with cultural industry infrastructure and policy development in Far North Queensland.

leanne Ringelstein

Born in Queensland, Leanne completed her dance training at the Queensland University of Technology, gaining an Associate Diploma of Arts, Dance. Her professional career has included extensive work throughout South Australia with the Australian Dance Theatre, and Queensland for Expressions Dance Company and Dance North. Outside Australia, Leanne has toured widely to Wales, Singapore, Israel and the United Kingdom with Expressions Dance Company, and has undertaken a number of national and overseas tours with the Mazeppa Ukrainian Cossacks. In 200 I, Leanne received a Winston Churchill Fellowship Award to perform, teach and choreograph in the United States of America, working with ODC/SAN FRANCISCO and Janice Garrett & Dancers. While in the USA, Leanne was nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award 2002 and qualified as a Pilates instructor.

Leanne currently performs, teaches and choreographs for a number of schools and organisations in Brisbane. Her most recent work was the creation and performance of there for the site-specific work here/there/then/now directed by Cheryl Stock at the Brisbane Powerhouse.

lylyTran

Ly Ly is currently completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) at QUT. She graduated in 1996 from the Vietnam Dance College and in 1997 came to Australia on AU SAID scholar-

ship to study dance. In 2000 she went to France to work, study and perform for Ballet

Atlantique-Regine Chopinot. She returned to Vietnam in 2001 and worked as performer and choreographer with various companies including the Vietnam Opera and Ballet Company, the Vietnam Youth Theatre and the Vietnam Traditional Dance and Music Company, She has performed in Thailand, Korea, Japan and France and has won many awards for her performances and choreography.

Rebecca Voudell

Rebecca is a contemporary choreographer and performer working via site-specific interdisciplinary collaborations involving multimedia, installation and performance. Born in Edin- burgh, Scotland, and studying and performing worldwide, Rebecca has danced in the USA, UK, Scandinavia, Asia and Europe attending the Royal Ballet School in London, and working for the Royal Swedish Ballet Company in Stockholm. Currently Rebecca is co- artistic director of Bonemap, which works in cultural exchange and creative intermedia with various global organisations, and she is also a member of the Ausdance Queensland Board.

Rebecca has received numerous awards both in Australia and overseas, and holds a BFA

(Dance)-cum laude high honours, Butler University (USA) 1992, and an MA (Visual/

Performing Arts) Charles Sturt University (Aus) 1998.

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PROOUCTIOH HAH

Coordinator: Cheryl Stock Production Coordinator:

Senior Technicians, Garden's Theatre: Chris Dickey and Graham Menzies Lighting Designers: Andrew Haden and Crystal MacFarlane

Stage Manager: Olivia Shearman Assistant Stage Manager: Annette Silva

Sound: Tony Brumpton Artwork: Russell Milledge Program: Cheryl Stock and Vivienne Wilson

RCKHOWUOGtHtHTS

Tristan Ayton, technical crew Dan Black, technical crew

Colleen Brydges, Advancement, Creative Industries Chris Dickey, Garden's Theatre

Jondi Keane Erin Lynch, technical crew

Vanessa Mafe

Graham Menzies, Garden's Theatre

Richard Vella, Adjunct Professor, Music, Creative industries Dr Sue-Anne Wallace, Director , Cultural Precinct

Vivienne Wilson, TALSS, QUT