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Upholster |
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September 2001
Volume 2, Number 3
'My story begins with what I confess is an obsession with mid-century
modern furniture'.
When you think of contemporary dance and Featherstone chairs, Brunswick
CAE and evening classes in upholstery don't readily spring to mind. But
this is exactly where Melbourne choreographer Phillip Adams found inspiration
for his recent work Upholster.
'As I was doing the [CAE] course, I became inspired by the dracon, wadding,
cover-fix, piping, tools and fabrics. I noticed the relationship between
the padding, the stuffing, the wadding and the fabric of furniture and
the human body's bones, tissues, muscles, skin and clothes,' said Adams.
Premiering at the Athenaeum II Theatre during the 2001 Melbourne Fashion
Festival, and funded through Arts Victoria's Arts and Professional Development
program, Upholster has been variously described as 'postmodern
contemporary dance meets hippies love orgies, [where] a ballet pas de
deux becomes a surreal mixture of swirling sofas and frock-clad men' (Stephanie
Glickman, Herald Sun), and 'riotous..., a bizarre dystopia of Karma Sutra
on futons and shopfront windows.' (Lee Christofis, The Australian)
Beginning in a Renaissance court, Upholster traversed an eclectic
dance landscape from psychedelic hip to 1950's Melbourne, encompassing
along the way a dream-like dance sequence between a sofa and a Featherstone
chair, a San Francisco night club circa 1972 complete with caged dancers,
calmly meditative moments, and Karma Sutra-like convulsions. The second
production of Adam's company Balletlab, the cast featured Michelle Heaven,
Gerard Van Dyck, Stephanie Lake, Shone Erskine, Brooke Stamp, Ryan Lowe,
Kyle Kremerskothen and understudy Brooke Leader.
| Phillip Adams' Upholster, Design & Art Direction 3 DEEP - Photo by Jeff Busby |
Upholster is a highly visual work. Costume and dĀZcor designer Dorotka
Sapinska used futons, Indian prints, Hindu iconography and original Marimekko
fabrics from Finland to create a chic 1970's feel for the production.
Building on this psychedelic theme, lighting designers Bluebottle transformed
the Athenaeum into an 'Austin Powers' dreamscape; complete with a wall
upholstered in lights and fabric, through which the lighting operator
was visible. Large psychedelic circles and modular white boxes, which
acted as podiums for the dancers, completed the design.
Turntable composer Lynton Carr provided a live mixed musical accompaniment,
sampling cha-cha, bossa nova, opera, 1970's rock music and smoky, strip-joint
blues.
Described by The Age's Neil Jillett as 'one of the few Australian avant-garde
choreographers who deserve an audience', Adams is a graduate of the Victorian
College of the Arts and a recipient of an ANZ International Fellowship
Award. On returning to Melbourne after ten years living and working in
New York, Adams founded Balletlab and, in 1999, presented Amplification.
A critically acclaimed work which explored death, car crashes and necrophilia, Amplification was co-funded through Arts and Professional Development
and the Australia Council.
Adams has devised work for Chunky Move (Ei Fallen, presented as
part of Combination #3), toured Amplification to Germany
and Mongolia and created a full-length work for China's Quangdong Modern
Dance Company. In 2002 Adams and Balletlab will undertake a residency
at the Nationale Choreographique Centre in Paris, the first Australian
company to do so. |
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