Devolution

Behold: the future of dance.

2006 Helpmann Awards for Best New Australian Work & Best Lighting Design (Louis-Philippe Demers) & 2006 Inaugural Ruby Award for Innovation.

 

Garry Stewart has deservedly built a reputation for pushing dance beyond convention into new, daring realms. But nothing ever as imaginative, as jaw-droppingly inspired as this. For Devolution, Stewart collaborated with Canadian multi-disciplinary artist, Louis-Philippe Demers, and UK video artist, Gina Czarnecki, to create a unique world, the likes of which Australian theatre has never produced before.

In this world, humans commune and interact with robotic machines of every size on a massive robotic, kinetic set. The mechanised lighting design is interspersed with extraordinary video art. And the dancers perform symbiotically with a multitude of robotic prostheses and ambulating robotic constructs. Devolution totally redefines the relationship between machine and body; between dance and performance art.

Filled with symbolism and ritualised process, Devolution underlines that for all of our technology, we are still primitive, living, flesh-and-blood, instinctive biological beings. Share this radical and thought-provoking vision of the future of Australian dance.

For a sneak preview of what this amazing show looks like, click here to download the preview.

This project has been assisted by the Arts SA Major Commission Program and the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body, through the New Australian Stories Initiative and its Major Festivals Initiative in association with the Confederation of Australian International Arts Festivals Inc., the Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts and Sydney Festival.