A_PART LIVE_01
Welcome to the first A_PART LIVE - what I hope will become a regular feature, bringing exceptional contemporary performance work to intimate scale venues in South-East Queensland and Northern Rivers regions.
I’d like to first honour the Bundjalung traditional owners of the beautiful lands, waterways and skies of this region in which we present this show tonight. Always was, always will be.
I started A_PART during a tumultuous global moment, in 2021. A_PART’s primary ethos is connection between worlds - between cultures, sociodemographic backgrounds, art forms - in order to embody the unifying power of art. We are each a part of a greater whole.
I felt impelled to launch LIVE_01 in this region after performing an intimate scale show in a small art gallery car park in Mermaid Beach in the Gold Coast last year. The response was all I needed to hear to pitch the idea to the City of Gold Coast Council’s Major Arts Fund. My favourite was a guy who is a surfer and a tradie, who shared that he had always wanted to see a dance performance but felt intimidated by the idea of going to a theatre. This country has a problem with elitism, and my work with A_PART is very much about breaking those barriers down. In Indonesia, live performance pops up in the street, in a temple, at a restaurant; it’s intrinsic in the everyday. Art can, and should be, accessible to everyone.
This show is comprised of two of my works, both in collaboration with extraordinary music artists Kasimyn and Sam Saljooghi. Music is central to both works, in vastly different ways; and it’s always an honour to be able to create music and dance together from the ground up, so that we can fully explore their magical coalesce. I’m so happy to be able to share these two very special works.
My hope is that future editions of A_PART LIVE will be able to platform the rich array of talented local artists to make and present their work too. With two sold out shows in Gold Coast and Byron Bay, the message from the community is clear. We need to continue this momentum, responding to the appetite for high calibre, accessible performance and providing outlets for artists, thereby contributing meaningfully to the local arts ecology.
A_PART is fueled by project grants and donations. Your support at this show is greatly appreciated, and if you would like to continue supporting our work, please head to YOUR_PART
Thank you to the City of Gold Coast Council for making these shows, and the creation of MOUNTAIN, possible.
Thank you to the team - producer Michaela Coventry, production and stage manager/lighting designer Alex Torney, Sam Saljooghi on sound, Joel Benguigui for A_PART art direction and design, and Meg Stoios and Ellamay Fitzgerald for ushering. Thank you also to Joel at Blanc Studio and Masa at 11Past11 Studio for your enthusiasm and support for these shows; and Jaci and Phil at Dance Conservatory, Studio1 Brisbane and Australasian Dance Collective for support with precious studio space.
And a big thank you, terima kasih, and matur nuwun to you all for being here.
Juliet Widyasari Burnett
ꦫꦺꦴꦫꦺꦴ ꦌꦤꦺꦴ
RORO XENO
choreography + performance: Juliet Widyasari Burnett
music: Kasimyn
costume: Aleisa Jelbart
lighting: Alex Torney
producer: Michaela Coventry
Underpinned by the lore of Java in tension with Western ideologies, Burnett shapeshifts between Javanese folkloric deities and demons inherent in her ancestry as an allegory for the eternal cycle of becoming. Working with the traditional medium of pointe shoes, merged with Javanese and contemporary dance and Silat; with Kasimyn’s music blending traditional with fantastical electronic sounds, all creating a surreal world grounded in the visceral.
کوه
ꦒꦸꦤꦸꦤ꧀ꦒ꧀
MOUNTAIN
choreography: Juliet Widyasari Burnett
music: Sam Saljooghi
costume: Gabrielle Ferns
lighting: Alex Torney
producer: Michaela Coventry
performed by Juliet Widyasari Burnett + Sam Saljooghi
MOUNTAIN uses the deep time lifespan of mountains as a meter by which we contextualise the tensions of the current global moment. A dialogue between body and sound that lives between the cultures of Java and Iran, shaped by seismic and spiritual forces that build toward a suspended silence - not emptiness, but a hovering energy. Something like peace.
Deep Time
Pressure
Mountain
Intrusion
Compression
Meeting Place of the Spirits
Offering
Eruption