The more I observe and explore the phenomena that is dance the more I truly see and believe that what dance provides is a visual language for an internal world...the world of human emotion that cannot be seen, but always be felt.
And with in this language I have yet to find a dance form in which this is more evident than the globally practiced yet loosely defined genre of contemporary dance. These dancers spend their life in vigorous training, challenging and expanding their physical, mental and emotional limitations purely to find ways to better express and communicate the stories, messages and experiences that reflect what it is to be human...using nothing more than their very own human body.
It never ceases to strike awe in my spirit when I watch these humans at work. Finding myself completely immersed and enraptured by these moving bodies, I feel every movement as if it were my own. With a simple flick of a hand or hip bone I can feel my heart jolt. In a graceful leap or twirl I feel it lift and sore and with just a precisely timed flexion of muscle I can feel it rise up my very throat and pour out of my eyes and down my cheeks transformed now into water. Using their body like a magic wand these dancers can trigger emotion inside you through physically becoming and embodying that emotion themselves. Creating a connection between strangers at the most personal level.
This year I set out to explore the world and profession of contemporary dance through film and documentary in an attempt to share even a little of that which intrigues me so much about this unique way of life.
A documentary film about the art and profession of contemporary dance. Exploring not only what it means to be a dancer, but what it means to be human, and how these are intrinsically and intimately woven.
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With footage collected across Australia and Europe and interviews with Stephanie Lake, Antony Hamilton, Paea Leach, James Vu Ahn Pham, Lauren Langlois, Tara Jade Soh and Sarah Jayne Howard, it has been beautiful journey indeed.
