BE

YOUR

SELF

Be Your Self explores conceptions of individuality by reframing the relationship between the self — the singular “I”—and the body. A wo­ven surface of elastic fabric bands appears to warp the stage into a diagonal plane. The woven textile at first conceals the dancers, then allows their bodies and body parts to pass through its surface, enabling a surreal choreography of dismembered limbs to coexist with elements of traditional dance. The fabric surface also serves as a screen, receiving projections of moving shapes and patterns while the dancers pierce through its seams. The projected imagery confuses the audience’s sense of reality as the dancers’ bodies merge and interact with the changing visual compositions. The dancers respond to the projections in ways that blur the distinction between the immaterial graphics and the corporeal body: wiping light off the fabric surface as if it were sand, and in the end, disappearing headfirst into a shrinking pool of white light.

Be Your Self was created in collaboration with choreographer Garry Stewart and the Australian Dance Theatre.