In Development

FORM DANCE PROJECTS AND RIVERSIDE THEATRES PRESENT
IN RESIDENCE AT RIVERSIDE STUDIO AND NORTHMEAD STUDIO

FORM believes in the importance for artists to access studio space in order to play with ideas, collaborate, develop work and rehearse. FORM welcomes artists on a need basis for  up to two-week residencies in its Parramatta-based studio pending on availability and relevance to FORM’s program.
Priority is given to artists developing work towards presentation in Dance Bites seasons.
Requests should be directed to production_form@cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au or call 9806 5672


March Dance
March Dance 2023 residency recipients Annalouise Paul and Compañia Pepa Molina supported by FORM Dance Projects.

Annalouise Paul
Development of new choreographic material for A Late Bloomer, a new VR Dance work that explores identity, trade and heritage. Exploring the integration of emergent technologies to preserve and respond to living spaces, together with the human body.


Compañia Pepa Molina
FlamencoBITS is an experimental exploration of form and cross-artform dialogue that re-interprets the traditional forms of flamenco by fusing the performative, visual, and aural practices of three distinct practitioners: Pepa Molina, Miguel Olmo, and Manuel Barco. Choreographed for Compañía Pepa Molina’s emerging artist’s Flamenco Ensemble Las Flamenkas.

Image Credits: 1) A Late Bloomer APDT, Annalouise Paul
2)Pepa Molina’s Flamenco Ensemble Las Flamenkas, Yerko Leiva


WE ARE HERE Company

WE ARE HERE Director: Emma Saunders
With company artists: Vishnu Arunasalam, Warren Foster, Emily Yali, Fiorella Bamba, Katrina Sneath, Gabriella Green Olea, Liam Berg, Naomi Reichhardt, Sarah Kalule, Rachelle Silsby, Rory Warne, Sarah Goroch, Claire Rodrigues, Josh O’Connor and Chris Wade.

The WE ARE HERE Company is a new, breakthrough contemporary dance company like no other. It comprises of powerful performers (aged 20-30 yrs) who are open minded, able to dance with ‘heart’ and exhibit performative and choreographic potential.

Their new work Radical Transparency will be premiered at the first Dance Bites in 2022 as part of March Dance. It is a new rollicking, one of a kind dance work that explores the intersection between honesty and artifice, wild and tame, light and dark, process and performance, raw and manufactured, and how on earth in this day and age we are going to present new dance work that is sustainable, wild, buoyant and afloat while it feels like everything is sinking.

Radical Transparency was supported by March Dance, The City of Sydney and the Keir Foundation. Emma Saunders & WE ARE HERE was the recipient of a Bursary from Critical Path, which contributed to the development of this work.

Image: WE ARE HERE Artists – Photographer: Dom O’Donnell


OUT OF THE STUDIO – DIRTY FEET

Out of the Studio is an opportunity for emerging choreographers to develop new ideas and a platform to present new dance works to audiences in a theatre context. FORM Dance Projects continues its partnership on this program by providing studio space for the development of these new dance works. Past residents include Matt Cornell, Sara Black, Lucky Lartey, Callum Mooney, Emma Harrison and Emily Flannery.

In 2022 FORM welcomes Gabriela Green Olea developing her new work ‘Spaces of Belonging’.

Image: Out of the Studio, Gabriela Green Olea – Photo by Hayley Rose Photography


STEP – MOLONAI MAKALIO 

Step was originally commissioned by Nick Power & Intimate Spectacle as a ten minute work for Out of Iso, in Nick’s NEXT LEVEL: A new realm of hip hop, October 2020. A first creative development towards a larger work was supported by Sydney Festival, and UNSW Creative Practice Laboratory.

Step is now in its second creative development supported by FORM Dance Projects and Riverside Theatres at the Northmead Studio. During the 3 weeks residency at FORM, Molonai will deepen the conceptual terrain of the work in a period of research and generation of new performance material. Working with artists Clive Ellwood (dancer/performer) and Russell Morell (drummer) and mentored by Latai Taumoepeau and Matt Prest.

Step brings together hip hop and rugby with Polynesian cultural elements such as Lali (wooden drum), the kava ceremony to create a unique performance that explores the physical and spiritual connections between these different cultural sources.

“Rugby has kept me sane during the pandemic with dancing forbidden. Step is about the connection between Rugby and Polynesian culture. Ever since Rugby was introduced in the south Pacific in the late 1800s, it has played a big role in our youthful lives for hope, freedom and power. The art of Hip Hop also has a large influence in the native Polynesian culture allowing for expression, creativity and joy. Through the fusion with hip hop this piece celebrates Polynesian warriors and Rugby exploring how both have similar traits such as strength agility and speed.” – Molonai Makalio


CREATE SPACE

Create Space is a supported residency for artists with disability, developed between Ausdance NSW, Sydney Opera House and FORM Dance Projects.

This year’s recipient is dancer and choreographer Georgia Cranko. Georgia is using the two-week residency to develop her work ‘The Doubling Of Presence’.

“The Create Space residency is allowing me to start to grapple with concepts of care, consent, and bodily autonomy in the context of disability. Having dedicated time in a studio is always a joy, it gives me the mental space, and the actual space to cultivate my creativity and physically explore seemingly intangible ideas. It’s so nice to play, to devise and discover new ways of telling a story and challenging audiences.” Georgia Cranko

Create Space, Georgia Cranko and Amanda McGregor – Image: Naomi Hibberd