'Safehold' (2024), Oliver Savariego, Anika de Ruyter, Rachel Mackie. Photo by Gregory Lorenzutti

Created by choreographer Sandra Parker in collaboration with composer Lawrence Harvey, SAFEHOLD is a new choreographic work drawing on themes of collaboration and unity, performed by dancers Anika de Ruyter, Rachel Mackie and Oliver Savariego.

Using exacting physicality and rigorous choreography, in SAFEHOLD, the dancers try to support, synchronise, and rely on each other, testing the limits of co-existence while maintaining impregnable and secure physical connections. As the pacing and rhythm intensifies across the hour-long event and the dancers move through a continuum of recursive and ever increasingly complex choreographic patterns, the work of maintaining the safety of the ‘hold’ is put to the test. The demands inflicted – to carry on, maintain equilibrium and cooperation, and sustain the performance – considers the scaffolding we rely on when seeking unity and the ‘common good’. SAFEHOLD examines our feeling and actual capacity for trust and reliance on the collective, evaluating what we deem to be safe for all on a human, bodily level.

Choreographer: Sandra Parker

Composer and Sound Designer: Lawrence Harvey

Dancers: Anika de Ruyter, Rachel Mackie, Oliver Savariego

Sound Engineers: Nicole Halford, David Turner

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body and supported by The Australian Ballet Residency Program 2022; the City of Melbourne Arts Grants; Chunky Move's Minimax program; LGI through a studio residency at WXYZ Studios and was created with the support of a Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship.