WAAPA dance season finale and LINK tour

To finish off a very successful year that has included sold out seasons at the Geoff Gibbs Theatre and Dolphin Theatre and a tour of 33 second and third year dancers to Beijing, the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) Dance Department will celebrate the end of the academic year in style. The second and third year dance students will perform Jardi as their season finale and the postgraduate LINK Dance Company will present Hanging Space, followed by a short tour to Sydney and Melbourne.

Coming up this weekend, LINK Dance Company’s Hanging Space program will present work choreographed by Michael Whaites and Laura Boynes. LINK, a company comprised of dancers that have graduated from WAAPA, will perform this one-hour site-specific promenade performance across five locations at the WA Museum, exploring the hidden nooks and crannies of the beautiful and historic facility while investigating notions of physical perspective and personal perception.

From the macro to the micro, Hanging Space promises to take its audience on a journey to familiar and unfamiliar spaces and to present a re-imagining of this iconic site. Set for October 30 and 31, as well as November 2 and 3, performances will be presented at 7:30 p.m. at WA Museum, located at Perth Cultural Centre on James Street in Perth. Tickets cost
 $24 full price and $20 concession. To reserve tickets, call (08) 9370 6895 or go online to www.waapa.ecu.edu.au.

Following their Hanging Space season at the WA Museum, LINK will embark on a short tour to Sydney and Melbourne with their Semester One season Moving Object, featuring the choreography of Japan-based Alessio Silvestrin, who has danced and choreographed for Béjart Ballet, Ballet de l’Opéra National de Lyon and Ballet Frankfurt. It will also present new contemporary works by Perth-based choreographers Rachel Ogle and Kynan Hughes.

LINK will perform in Sydney at the Io Myers Studio Theatre on Sunday, November 10 at 6 p.m. and Monday, November 11 at 7 p.m. Then the company will perform in Melbourne at Dancehouse on Friday, November 15 and Saturday, November 16 at 8 p.m. 
Tickets are now available for all performances.

For more stellar dance performances, audiences will also want to go see WAAPA’s second and third year dance students present Jardi in the Geoff Gibbs Theatre at ECU Mount Lawley from Saturday 16 until Saturday 23 November. Jardi will boast two brand new contemporary works by renowned Australian choreographers, Leigh Warren and Sue Peacock, the remounting of a work by Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato, and the restaging of one of the world’s best-loved classical ballets.

In this fantastic WAAPA dance season finale, audiences will witness a magnificent range of style and skill, from Duato’s exciting and passionate work Jardi Tancat, based on Catelonian folk tales, to Kim McCarthy’s and Andries Weidemann’s restaging of favourite scenes from the comic ballet Coppélia, set to music by Delibes, to an anticipated new work by award-winning Australian choreographer Leigh Warren.

Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. 
each evening and will cost $30 full price and $26 for concession. To book tickets to Jardi, call (08) 9370 6895 or go online to www.waapa.ecu.edu.au.

Photo: Dance students in a performance for Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Photo courtesy of WAAPA.