emotion21 Dancers to perform at Melbourne Fringe Festival

For the first time, emotion21 dance artists with Down syndrome are performing to a wider audience at the Melbourne Fringe Festival. In two intimate shows, get a glimpse into the hearts and lives of people living with a disability.

Specifically designed for people with Down Syndrome, emotion21 is proven to improve the strength, balance, coordination, and motor skills of participants. It also fosters confidence, self-esteem, socialisation, and leadership skills that help ensure that people with Down Syndrome have the best opportunity to lead healthy and independent lives.

This year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival will feature two opportunities for attendees to enjoy emotion21 dancers. Sonder will be performed 7-9 October at 3 pm, 6, pm, and 7:30 pm at North Magdalen Laundry, Sacred Heart Building, Abbotsford Convent. Analects of Aliveness will be performed 15-16 October at 6:45 pm and 7:45 pm at Festival Hub: Trades Hall – ETU Ballroom.

Sonder is the realisation that each passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. Sonder is a bombastic dance show that challenges long-held ideas and values around what it means to have a disability. Performers will help you see the person, not just the label of their disability. It is a joyous, unexpected and entertaining dance performance co-created and entirely performed by a magnificent cast of 24 dancers with Down Syndrome.

Analects of Aliveness is an anthology of dance moments that invite you into the world-view, aspirations and fantasies of dancers with Down Syndrome. This two-part performance will entertain, enlighten and inspire you. Be astounded by the passion of our dancing, and then hear us speak in a follow-up discussion about our work and efforts as dancers with a disability.

Moving through high-camp jazz numbers, meditative introspection and bold contemporary choreographies, Analects of Aliveness is bursting with undiluted moments of zest and intimacy. Support the dancers by bringing your curiosity and willingness to discover. Sit back, watch and listen, or put up your hand and take the chance to connect with a person with Down Syndrome!

Tickets for Sonder begin at $28 and tickets for Analects of Aliveness begin at $24. Visit melbournefringe.com.au to purchase tickets for emotion21 performances, and to see the entire Festival line-up.