if you didn't catch Liz Carr at Art of Difference try your luck at the glasshouse on Friday night for King Victoria drag kings.

Roundangle's In the Dark continues at Northcote Town Hall.

Rollercoaster's real eyes is nearly sold out

As is the Grimstones by the wonderful Asphyxia, and then there's an opening of Diff'rent Strokes at Brunswick Arts Space.

enjoy

Observations and reviews from Eva Sifis - Dance Masterclass, Saturday 14 March

Integrated Dance Practise Masterclass, Saturday 14 March.

Held in a building at the VCA, members of the Touch Compass Company worked in a masterclass for dance practitioners and choreographers.
Upon entering the space, I saw series of couples working with each other. They worked with tandem exercises of directional weight bearing. They used the support of one another to progress the movements and with constant connection there was exploration of the possibilities of what conjoined body mass can capable.
The encouragement to forget the rules and to make it up gave free reign to spontaneous initiation. The group worked in silence til the last hour when music was introduced. This was interesting. It was said that the use of music can be deemed too provocative and that it can effect the movement adversely. It was hoped by bringing the music in at that later point would lend a lightness to the product.
The couples varied in ‘ability’, intertwining about each other. Constant rolling about each other meant the leading partner was not obvious with some couples and it was suggested that a focus for next time could be to work in opposition.
Some more improvisation showed how the work could be developed. The physical demand upon a dancer can be huge and finding a place to move together can confront the preconceived idea of what is possible. This can make it unsettling and challenging to watch.
This process was a serious exercise and set up parameters for future works. Indeed, it was felt that some of the pieces could be developed for performance. It was noted there was a lot going on with the relationships between the bodies that could be worked upon with the intention of a legitimate performance.

Observations and reviews from Eva Sifis - City of Voices, Thursday 12 March 2009

City Of Voices – ‘waiting, meeting, chasing… the station’

This was a charming collection of stories all interwoven around a platform at a train station. The program tells us that the stories are often autobiographical. The poignancy one feels at some of the skits surely is indicative of this.
The actors are a collection of characters, each unique and engaging from first sight. The costumes enhance but the faces are the tellers here.
The stories told range from little stories of childhood romances long lost but still haunting; raps about someone at London Central Station: ‘gotta get back where my kids are at’; a thief taking advantage of the frippery ladies drunken with their liberally laced tea and a story of lovers, the lady of which is kidnapped and tied to the train track in a classic story we are reminded of that is set in sepia tones in our memory. Her lover wins her freedom (with a much larger gun!) and the sweethearts reunite.
The simple tales are played out with heartfelt emotion and a sincerity that touches. A guaranteed smile will accompany the end of this play, believe me.

Reviews and observations from Eva Sifis - Touch Compass Friday 13 March 2009

Touch Compass

There was a film projected onto the back of the stage area in the opening of a debauched picnic. The ensuing exploration of balance and control was remarkable to watch. The honed ability to bear one’s own weight in whatever fashion, a demonstration of the body being used as an instrument quite separate to the one most of us use every day. There was a display of contorting to an insect, a crustacean, claws / pincers at the ready. Moving in and splaying out… was it threat? Was it show?
The bearing of another’s weight, how the two could meld into one, distinguishing between made difficult. The disintegration of reality, of the existence of body made malleable, the lines being blurred. Costuming of the two dancers was appropriate and contributed to the fantasy.

The second part of the show began with another film of a man readying for bed. As he fell into dream, shadows of ghostly arms beckoned, drawing him from one consciousness to the next.
All the members of the cast were introduced during this dance. The sylphs an ever present flow of weaving body currents. Here existed a blurring of the lines between need and use of the vehicles of ability. The dance was centralised around the figure of the ‘sleeping’ man. However the moments made tangible through the teaming of dissimilar couple or groups was at once cohesive and complementary. Each set of dancers found new ways to show their roles, individual or tandem
The tale progressed using swings and leaves of spinach to a place where the dream figures floated from the stage leaving the man to light his way with a torch to sleep once more.

Art of Difference is in its last week. It finishes on Saturday 21 but many of the big events happened over the weekend (including a torrential rain that was celebrated by a concentrated and perfectly proportioned set of revellers at Block Party). Currently, there's a great show on, Liz Carr's It Hasn't Happened Yet. The marketing for AOD hardly pays decent tribute to the show that audiences get to see. Liz is not only a comedian who has spent a lifetime witnessing and privately finessing her comic skills, she's also one that went from comic newby to seasoned cynical stand up genius in just a few years. 

Nothing is sacred with Liz Carr and Melbourne is seldom graced with a talent like hers. Her play, which tells the story of Alix tackling the mainstream as a crip jokester, is a finely hewed piece where theatre and standup are seamlessly interposed. It seems ironic that one of the best recently arrived comic talents of the UK is not going to earn the plaudits of any of the queer, straight, street, art or community press. You guys suck so badly for not having your ear to the ground. But it's your loss not ours.

To Liz Carr, a talent that we are all going to know about soon, and some of us were there when... SALUT.

Hopefully people will work out that quite a few people are posting to this blog. Some of it is just plain silly.

The very best thing about Art of Difference is that it's produced by an independent arts organisation. While it has got quite a bit of money from all over the place, mostly Government, it is allowed to present what it thinks is important. And what is important is anything that takes us closer to self-determination by Deaf and disabled (artists with disabilities) artists. 

That means that it is allowed to take risks, allowed to fail, set up to succeed, encouraged to offend and challenge, and rewards curiosity. All the opposite things of the death rattles of government and bureaucratically run enterprises.

Art of D is going to be fun and rewarding in all sorts of cerebral ways. Don't miss Block Party - the midway celebration of all things short. Make sure you are in Fed Square on thursday at 1pm or 5pm to see Bedrock, the epitome of the independent spirit of AOD. Join us if you can.

Rima at the Block Party - 14 March - Gasworks Arts Park

We are delighted to announce that Rima will be performing at the Block Party!

Rima Hadchiti has been performing all of her 26 years, having travelled Europe as a babe in arms while her gypsy musician father toured. Involved in theatre productions since the late 1990’s, Rima gained rave reviews for the depth of her character work in productions like ‘The Night Gardener’ (Chapel of Change Productions) and various Shakespearian adaptations. While the burlesque and the avant garde are her primary passions, Rima can cast a spell over a room of children when in fairy costume, and have them believing she is the real deal.

Nowadays she is internationally known for her belly dancing, and has been a frequent special guest performer for The Famous Spiegeltent’s feature show, ‘La Clique’.

In 2007, Rima performed in Simon Phillip’s Melbourne Theatre Company production of ‘The Pillowman’, and in 2008 achieved prime time television ratings equal to Pamela Anderson in reality television appearances. Over Christmas she gained widespread public support championing disability rights issues in a recent stoush with VicRoads on A Current Affair, and continues her bellydancing career in which her uber-petite dimensions and Cleopatra like beauty charms audiences everywhere.