Original, passionate dance defines LINK’s ‘Motion State’

Motion State pulls exciting, young choreographic talent into its orbit from across Australia and overseas to create energetic new works on the dancers in LINK, WAAPA’s graduate dance company.

Motion State will be performed by LINK Dance Company in WAAPA’s Geoff Gibbs Theatre from Wednesday, May 18 to Saturday, May 21 at 7:30 pm, with a matinee on Saturday, May 21 at 2 pm.

WAAPA is delighted to welcome choreographers Israel Aloni and Lee Brummer, co-founders and artistic directors of the independent Swedish contemporary dance company, ilDance.

Originally from Tel Aviv, Israel Aloni is an international independent choreographer, educator, guest performer and entrepreneur. His long list of credits includes work with such internationally acclaimed dance companies as GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, Odelya Kuperberg Dance Group and Sasha Waltz & Guests.

British-born Lee Brummer has danced with the world-famous Emanuel Gat and Bat Dor Dance Companies and has recently choreographed segments of Billy Elliot for the Gothenburg Opera. Brummer, who has been based in Sweden since 2006, has worked with companies including Norrdans (Sweden), DV8 Physical Theatre (U.K.), Australian Dance Theatre and Sydney Dance Company, to name just a few.

Aloni and Brummer find inspiration for their choreography in humanity, psychology and physicality, and their original movement language enhances the communicative element of their work.

These two international artists have co-choreographed an exciting new work on the LINK dancers for the Motion State season. As is explores the concept of home and what home symbolises for each of the performers.

“What makes us feel at home or what makes us know that we are away from it?” asks Aloni. “We carry our home with us. In memories, in the stories we tell and in symbolic items that remain with us while we are geographically separated from where we call home.”

Brummer describes the work as presenting the relationships, struggles and comfort associated with home. “It’s about forming structures of familiarity and the effect of what happens to us when this familiarity is taken away,” she explains.

The LINK dancers will also be working with award-winning Australian dancer/choreographer Scott Ewen.

Hailing from regional WA, Ewen graduated from WAAPA in 2010, taking out the Hawaiian Award for the most outstanding graduate and the Finley Award in Dance for the student demonstrating the most promise. After a short stint at Tasdance, Ewen was a full-time member of Garry Stewart’s Australian Dance Theatre from 2011-2015, touring internationally with the company. Most recently, he has worked with Aloni and Brummer at ilDance.

Ewen’s work, entitled AUTO-Immune, is an investigation through dance of the absurd, mysterious and unknown reasons why the body and mind can both turn on themselves and each other.

“Why the body may attack itself is a process whereby we are forced into vulnerability, and we are forced to witness the undoing take place,” says Ewen.

The final choreographer on the Motion State program is former LINK dancer and WAAPA graduate Isabella Stone.

“I am delighted to invite Isabella back to the company in the capacity of choreographer to share the experience she has had since graduating in 2010,” says Michael Whaites, Artistic Director of LINK Dance Company and Lecturer in Dance at WAAPA.

Stone was the recipient of the Emerging Artist Award at the 2014 WA Dance Awards and has presented her own choreography at the State Theatre Centre, Dance Compass in Sydney, STRUTathon and Shortcuts.

Her piece for the LINK season is enigmatically called Underneath. I lie. Stone describes the work, which features music by David Lang and Colin Stetson, as an exploration into what it is to be underwater, under sunlight, under observation, under the weight of another and under the weight of one’s self.

“Physically the work has manifested in stillness, in sweeping floor phrases, frantic limbs and gestures that identify the individual journey of the dancers,” says Stone. “The structure of the work paired with unison choreography confirms that the dancers are in the same place at the same time, but leaves space for us to question where this is and creates a story that is seemingly never-ending.”

These original choreographic works by four talented young choreographers, both international and local, make up the Motion State program, promising an engaging, stimulating and entertaining season of contemporary dance.

WAAPA’s Geoff Gibbs Theatre at ECU is located at 2 Bradford Street, Mount Lawley. Tickets for Motion State are $26, or $21 for concession and friends. Call (08) 9370 6895 or visit waapa.ecu.edu.au/boxoffice to book your seats.