ENCOUNTER
EMMA SAUNDERS
COMMISSIONED AND PRODUCED BY FORM DANCE PROJECTS
SUPPORTING PARTNERS: SYDNEY YOUTH ORCHESTRAS & FLING PHYSICAL THEATRE
“Brilliant! First class piece of work!”, “LOVED IT”, “excellent”, ‘Still buzzing”, “epic”, “going back to see it again tonight”, “real time golden moments”, “stunning”, “the people love it”, “You can’t beat that!”, “It certainly was the right antidote to the current mood”, “so uplifting!”.
A SITE-RESPONSIVE WORK OF JOY
The World Premiere of ENCOUNTER was presented by Sydney Festival 2020 at Prince Alfred Square, in Parramatta, Western Sydney and ENCOUNTER SOUTH was presented by Four Winds Spring Festival in Bermagui, NSW in 2019 to overwhelming positive response. ENCOUNTER is the perfect festival piece for bringing together communities, both through the artistic process and through the audiences who get to experience the incredibly striking end result.
“ENCOUNTER demonstrated the best of humanity. The whole experience was a huge achievement and added to the notion that art can change the world, lift us up and give us a positive view of the community we inhabit. We need more moments of ENCOUNTER.” Wesley Enoch, Sydney Festival, Artistic Director
“Site-specific works really do help us to see the familiar in new and unexpected ways, and those images remain with us.” David Francis, Four Winds Festival, Executive Director
“The show is a joy bomb in many ways, an eruption of raw energy and physicality. Emma Saunders’ work with these young dancers uses simple provocations responding to the actual site, the monumental steps, the podium and the expanse of the Sydney Opera House forecourt back to the city.” Fiona Winning, Sydney Opera House, Head of Programming
ENCOUNTER – PARRAMATTA
You are here in this place where the eels lay down and the cars light up and the McDonald’s M is the biggest moon in the sky. Parramatta. Summertime. Early in the evening. ENCOUNTER is your invitation to the neighbourhood.
In this en masse, site-responsive work of joy, directed by the “formidable” Emma Saunders, ENCOUNTER explores the everyday extraordinariness of being young and being in this place, from Parramatta, Western Sydney to the Bega Valley, on the NSW South Coast.
In collaboration with a group of award-winning Australian artists, including writer, Felicity Castagna, composers, Amanda Brown (The Go-Betweens) and Jodi Phillis (The Clouds), and associate artist Rob McCredie and conductor James Pensini, ENCOUNTER celebrates young people growing up in urban and regional communities.
Creatively developed with a cast of 16 young dancers and 50 young musicians of the Western Sydney Youth Orchestra, ENCOUNTER explores the indomitable spirit of youth and the world they find themselves in.
“ENCOUNTER was a brilliant, diverse and visceral work of art. The effect on audiences was palpable –it raised us all up and for that one hour the world was a better, lighter and joyful place. Thanks ENCOUNTER!!”, “FORM Dance Projects has conceived, realised and epitomised the zeitgeist in this one event…The images conjured a space full of possibility.” Vicki Van Hout, choreographer, performer, dance blogger, “One of the highlights of a show that celebrated Parramatta, young people, identity and diversity.” Caroline Baum, Arts Journalist and Commentator.
Read full Parramatta script by Felicity Castagna HERE
Read full Bega, NSW, script by Felicity Castagna HERE
Read full Sydney Opera House script by Felicity Castagna HERE
ENCOUNTER TOURING
We can rework ENCOUNTER in three ways to suit your needs. ENCOUNTER can be presented in various formats, ranging from large scale to smaller remounts, and even as a pop-up performance, adapting to any site and making it well tailored to touring.
1. MINI ENCOUNTER:
Mini ENCOUNTER can be presented with pre-recorded orchestral tracks and/or spoken word voice over tracks, in a slightly condensed version, with 6-10 dancers, with a running time of 40 minutes. The director, Emma Saunders, and writer, Felicity Castagna would adapt the performance to the site and create a spoken word script specifically tailored to your site from stories revealed locally.
2. SITE RESPONSIVE PRESENTATION OF ENCOUNTER:
A Presentation of ENCOUNTER that is remounted in response to your selected site. It is performed by 8 dancers from Western Sydney, our slam poet and the 50 piece live Western Sydney Youth Orchestra, or the full recorded 60 minute orchestral score. Our writer, Felicity Castagna would create a new spoken word script specifically tailored to your site from stories revealed locally.
3. A NEW ENCOUNTER! – NATIONAL/LOCAL EXCHANGE:
A really exciting and innovative way to tour ENCOUNTER is to create a new version that directly resonates with YOUR audiences and where Emma Saunders will work/exchange with your local dancers and orchestra. It is an artistic and collaborative exchange between Emma, 8 of our Western Sydney young dancers with 8 of your local young dancers. We would develop new responses and new choreography. A new ENCOUNTER! Western Sydney Youth Orchestra Conductor, James Pensini, could exchange with the conductor of your local orchestra to learn and then perform the score and our writer, Felicity Castagna, would work with the dancers to develop a new spoken word script for Pola Fanous, slam poet, tailored specifically to the stories revealed locally.
PRESENTERS
Please contact Annette McLernon, Executive Producer, at FORM Dance Projects, to discuss any potential touring interest.
EMAIL: director@form.org.au
MOB: +61 409 042 403
“ENCOUNTER spreads out, into, over and around the audience. It envelopes our senses, amazes visually and aurally and leaves us buoyed and ready to encounter the world once more. The original music score powers the dance in a myriad of moves and moods and Felicity Castagna’s text rings true and authentically out of a contemporary increasingly urbanised world. Director Emma Saunders has cleverly and creatively melded the talents of the Western Sydney dancers, Sydney Youth Orchestra, FLING Physical Theatre and many, many others to produce one of those rare once in a lifetime occasions that you will never forget. Do experience ENCOUNTER up close and soon.” Robert Love AM, Riverside Theatres
ENCOUNTER – SYDNEY FESTIVAL AND FOUR WINDS CAST CREDITS
COMMISSIONING EP & PRODUCER: ANNETTE McLERNON
DIRECTOR: EMMA SAUNDERS
CHOREOGRAPHY: In collaboration with the DANCERS
ASSOCIATE ARTIST: ROB McCREDIE
COMPOSERS: AMANDA BROWN & JODI PHILLIS
ORCHESTRATOR: JESSICA WELLS
CONDUCTOR: JAMES PENSINI
WRITER: FELICITY CASTAGNA
VISUAL ARTIST: DAVID CAPRA
WESTERN SYDNEY DANCERS: SARAH KALULE, LAWRENCEA MATEARIKI, SABRINA MUSZYNSKI, JOSHUA O’CONNOR, NAOMI REICHARDT, FERAS SHAHEEN, CAYLAN SPENDLOVE, XARA ZAINEDDINE
THE FLING COMPANY: ESME BARKER, EBONY CONSTABLE, GABRIELA GREEN OLEA, EBONY RYAN-MINERS, LARA SCRIVENS, BODHI TURNER, RORY WARNE, LUCA YI
ORCHESTRA: WESTERN SYDNEY YOUTH ORCHESTRA
SPOKEN WORD: POLA FANOUS
SPOKEN WORD (TRAILER): BILAL HAFDA
PHOTOGRAPHY: HEIDRUN LOHR
VIDEO & TRAILER: DOMINIC O’DONNELL
PRODUCTION MANAGER: BEC POULTER
“These are the things that should break your heart: those Eucalyptus trees up on the ridge, the way their bark strips itself back and arches out towards you.” Felicity Castagna
