IMMERSE: Contemporary Labs with Gabrielle Nankivell

Expanding Practice

Echoing the trajectory of our world, notions of practice (and our relationship to it) are constantly shifting. As someone working in and around dance and transdisciplinary research, I’m interested in how the choreographic moves in ways and mediums beyond dance and the body. I’m looking for ways to communicate the experience of what it feels like to be a time travelling entity in a human skin. A language that navigates the physical, conceptual, and cultural distances between people. A language that behaves like the fascia of the body – the ties between flesh and imagination, the connective tissue between art and audience. I'm curious about the psychological distance and proxemics of this shared reality and the emergent stories that live here.

This research lab curates the working group as an ensemble of participants and provocateurs. It is open to people curious about how we create frameworks for working together, together. How we generate shared experiences by tapping into the unique ingredients of the present. How we access different temporal zones - past, present, imagined, speculative - by heightening our awareness and experimenting with perspective. The lab experience highlights the ephemeral and residual archive we generate together. It asks how this can motivate us to be more perceptive to and creative in our everyday lives.

The lab welcomes curious people from all fields of practice/experience/interest wishing to work collaboratively.

Gabrielle’s atmospheric performance works and immersive projects are known for their vivid choreography, attention to detail and evocative combinations of the mundane and the bizarre.

Her work, which ranges from choreographic strategies for collaboration and social practice projects to bespoke solos and main-stage ensemble works, has been seen on iconic stages such as Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris, The Joyce in New York City, Sydney’s Roslyn Packer Theatre and Adelaide’s Dunstan Playhouse, as well as unique halls, galleries and open-air venues across Armenia, Andalucía and regional Australia. She has been commissioned by Sydney Dance Company, Dancenorth, Australasian Dance Collective, Queensland Ballet, Vitalstatistix, Brisbane Festival, Adelaide Festival Centre and Frontier Danceland Singapore.

As a performer Gabrielle has worked with Australian Dance Theatre, Alexander Baervoets (BE), Chunky Move/Gideon Obarzanek, Gavin Webber/Regurgitator, Jurij Konjar (SLO), Maxine Doyle (UK), The Farm, Thomas Steyaert (BE), Raul Maia (PT) & Ultima Vez/Wim Vandekeybus (BE) amongst others.

Gabrielle is the recipient of the inaugural Keith Bain Choreographic Travel Fellowship, the Tanja Liedtke Fellowship and an Arts South Australia Fellowship. She was the 2017 Artist in Residence at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts and Sydney Dance Company’s inaugural Training Associate in 2021.