Activators 8
Musica Ricercata by Shian Law
Technical Team: Blair Hart and Siobhain Geaney
‘The world set an empty stage, but there was no occasion for it.’
During months of lockdown, Shian Law recorded himself dancing all over the city. He found empty stages everywhere he looked—under the Flemington bridge, in carparks on the rooftops of high-rise buildings, at the entrance of a five-star hotel, in the compound of an abandoned factory—and shared his recordings on social media.
For one evening only, Chunky Move brings Shian Law’s provocative exploration of public space to the ACCA forecourt as part of Who’s Afraid of Public Space?. Accompanied by esteemed choreographer and dancer Victoria Chiu and a baby grand piano, Law investigates dance as a necessity for both the soul and the body and the resilience and creativity of artists to find a stage when the world is at a standstill.
“Dance is one of the ways for me to be in the world. During the months of hard lock-down, most of us weren’t left with many of these outlets. But I had myself, a world, a stage, and the history of dancing in my body. And to my soul’s consolation, I (re)discovered beauty in the delight one can have from a dance. That delight is my offering to you. And I hope you can find beauty in it.” – Shian Law
Activators is Chunky Move’s commissioning program for small scale experimental new work with an open-ended approach to the format and platform for presentation. Chunky Move commission multiple works annually and the program is curated by invitation only. Activators is grounded in choreographic approaches to site, space, time and material with the body at the centre of investigation. The program acknowledges expanded practice in art making as an aspect informing contemporary dance and Activators commissioned artists play a role in shaping and influencing contemporary and future dance practice. Previous works in the program have explored digital screen-based practice and animation, hybrid performance lecture contexts, gallery formats and live streamed events.
Read more about this project here.
