IDEA'24 Sharings with Critical Path

Critical Path and FORM Dance Projects are excited to support the creative developments of Alex Craig, Speak Percussion and Azzam Mohamed and Lee-Anne Litton for IDEA’24.

Please join us at The Drill Hall and the Sydney Opera House for their in-person sharings.

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AZZAM MOHAMED AND LEE-ANNE LITTON

Litton, an Australian contact improvisation expert practitioner, and Mohamed, a street dance leader, seek to explore the history of their respective practices and potential for innovation in their cross-fertilisation. The circle arena links them together, yet codes, cultures, and vocabularies vastly differ. The pair acknowledges the pioneer role of their mentors (Alejandro Rolandi and Nick Power) whilst diving deep in their comparative experimentations. 

* This creative development is supported by Critical Path and FORM Dance Projects.

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ALEX CRAIG

During their residency at the Centre for Creativity, Sydney Opera House, Alex Craig will further explore the development of collaborative embodied systems which draw on knowledge and practice informed by Blindness / their Blind perspective in the evolution of equitable creative exchange with sighted artists.This residency builds upon Alex’s research residency at Critical Path in 2022 which focussed on the development of Blindness-centred systems in the creation, transmission and improvisation of dance. 

During this time, Alex and collaborators explored the systemized use of body percussion and vocalised sounds for non-sighted spatial navigation and non-verbal communication. Sonic language and collective audio description methods were developed to equitably communicate choreography and diverse movement practice. Body and space percussive cues provided alternative means to offer / accept contact in the establishment of consensual physical contact and emotional safety practice.

In the 2024 residency at the Centre for Creativity, Alex will continue work initiated with long-term collaborator and access facilitator Imogen Yang; alongside dancers Gabriela Green Olea, Annalouise Paul, Sile Ellis & Emily Yali. Together, they carry a breadth of lived experiences, cultural backgrounds and movement languages, informing their collective ongoing exploration into how the use of sound, rhythm, and simple percussive technique within non-sight-reliant spatial navigation systems can sonically support a dancer’s safe traversal of space and moving with others.* This creative development is part of Sydney Opera House Create Space program. It is supported by Sydney Opera House, FORM Dance Projects and Critical Path.

* This creative development is part of Sydney Opera House Create Space program. It is supported by Sydney Opera House, FORM Dance Projects and Critical Path.

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SPEAK PERCUSSION

Speak Percussion takes percussive art to its physical and conceptual extremes. They shape the sounds of 21st century Australian percussion music through the creation and presentation of ambitious arts projects. Internationally recognised as a leader in the fields of experimental and contemporary classical music, Speak redefines the potential of percussion. From solo concerts to massed sound events, interdisciplinary projects to sound installations, participatory work to album releases, Speak Percussion has been responsible for 220+ commissions and premieres of new percussion works, contributing new 21st Century masterworks to the global percussion repertoire.

* This creative development is supported by Monash University's SensiLab, the Australian Research Council and Dirty Feet.

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Image: Alon Ilsar, Air Sticks For Dancer, 2024; photo: Jack Aperture.

Critical Path respectfully acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the traditional owners of the land where the organisation is based.