FRAME: A biennial of dance is coming to Melbourne and surrounds this March. The inaugural FRAME program is an invitation to celebrate and connect – to assemble, discuss, participate and witness dance across cultures, forms, styles and disciplines.
FRAME has been co-created by a collective of independent artists and organisations. It has been shaped and outlined over three years of conversation, consultation and collaboration. The inaugural program will feature performances, workshops, conversations and more.
Two by Raghav Handa (1 – 4 March at Arts House) explores the intimate bromance between a dancer and a tabla musician playing Indian percussive instruments. A traditional Indian Kathak and contemporary dance, this is a playful and witty discovery of rhythm and virtuosity as well as hierarchy and collaboration.
An Australian choreographer and performer of Indian heritage, Handa has worked with Sydney Dance Company, Force Majeure and Contemporary Asian Australian Performance. He has filled a variety of dance roles, including choreographer, performer, collaborator, lecturer and mentor for young artists.
Raina Peterson’s MOHINI (1 – 4 March at Arts House) is a psychedelic feast for the senses with lasers that re-vision the myth of Mohini, the avatar of Vishnu. Peterson queers the traditional Indian dance form of mohiniattam with surreal signature choreographic interventions.
A dancer-choreographer of Fiji-Indian and English heritage, Peterson’s works draw on their training in classical Indian dance. They are critically acclaimed for their subversive and visceral approach to exploring the diasporic experience, cultural identity, colonialism, gender diversity and sexuality.
The Honouring by Jackie Sheppard (15 – 18 March at Arts House) is a solo physical theatre story about death, trauma and grief. Through movement, dialogue and puppetry, it explores the transition a spirit takes after suicide and pays homage to their souls.
A mixed medium performer, storyteller, dancer and facilitator, Sheppard sheds light in dark places that explore taboo and complex topics that are relative to Black lived experiences. They studied dance at NAISDA Dance College and acting at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts Aboriginal theatre course.
Restless Dance Theatre’s Exposed (22 – 25 March at Arts House) presented by an ensemble of D/deaf and disabled artists and allies, delves into vulnerability, uncertainty and risk through graceful movement, evocative sculptural installation and a sonic meditation.
Led by Artistic Director Michelle Ryan, Restless Dance Theatre collaboratively devises works that are inclusive and informed by disability. As a place where diversity is celebrated and all artists thrive creatively, the company creates loud, strong and original dance theatre nationally and internationally.
Somewhere at the beginning by Germaine Acogny (29 March – 1 April at Arts House) searches for identity and traces the friction between tradition and emancipation by revisiting her exile to Europe and return to West Africa in this acclaimed autobiographical solo.
Acogny is a 79-year-old Senegalese-French dancer who received the prestigious Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance at the 2021 Venice Biennale. She has collaborated all over the world and is a forceful ambassador known as the “mother of contemporary African dance.”
For more information about FRAME: A biennial of dance, head to framebiennial.com.au.
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