An experimental choreographic work for three dancers and a congregation of beasts.
A Bestiary of Unimaginable Animals is an experimental choreographic as well as visual work for three dancers and a congregation of beasts, created by Nana Biluš Abaffy for FRAME: a biennial of dance at Temperance Hall.
Inspired by the medieval bestiarium, which was an elaborately illustrated compendium of both real and unreal animals, minerals and other forms of life, the work sets into motion a kaleidoscopic world of motley menageries and as yet unrealised environments.
In pursuit of untouchable utopias, which we try to touch, and imperceptible animating forces, which we can't resist, the work plays with a self- organising animality as it moves through a fragile habitat that we know can shift or break at any moment.
Unfolding over four days as part of the inaugural FRAME: a biennial of dance, this newly commissioned work invites audiences to step into an offbeat new bestiary of the unimaginable.
Choreography & Visual Design: Nana Biluš Abaffy
Performed by: Nana Biluš Abaffy, Geoffrey Watson, Rachael Wisby
Costumes construction: Olga Makeeva
Headpiece construction: Geoffrey Watson
Set construction: Nasim Patel, assisted by Yuiko Masukawa & Derrick Duan
Production Manager: Jordi Edwards
Producer: Anna McDermott
Executive Producer: William McBride
PERFORMANCE DATES AND TIMES
Wednesday March 1, 7.30pm
Thursday March 2, 7.30pm
Friday March 3, 7.30pm
Saturday March 4, 3pm and 7.30pm
LOCATION
Temperance Hall
199 Napier Street, South Melbourne
DURATION
60 mins, no interval
ACCESSIBILITY
Wheelchair accessible
TICKETS
Full $35
Conc. $25
FRAME Pass $20
Mobtix $10
Contact: program[at]temperancehall.com.au if you need more information.
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Nana Biluš Abaffy
Nana is an artist with a background in philosophy and a foreground in experimental performance and choreography. She is interested in the pursuit of knowledge through embodiment and wants to know what
her body is looking for. Nana believes that there is irreducible variation in the human experience and works towards establishing a space for that difference in search of landscapes where alterities can be envisioned. Find out more about Nana's work HERE on her artist website.
Geoffrey Watson
Geoffrey is a Melbourne-based artist, whose work is rooted in choreography and has branches in wearable design, sculpture and photography. As a dancer, Geoffrey has worked with artists including Phillip Adams, Lucy Guerin Inc, Nana Biluš Abaffy, Natalie Abbott, Lee Serle and Alisdair Macindoe. Geoffrey's performance works include Camel (Next Wave Festival 2016), Loving You Ad Nauseam (Melbourne Fringe Festival, 2016) DISTRACTION: T.C. Is a piece of shit (Counihan Gallery, 2017), Geoffrey’s Corpse (Uferstudios, Berlin, 2019), Rachael Wisby (Newport Substation/Lucy Guerin Inc., 2019) and It Happens to me Every Summer (video work for The Australian Ballet, 2021). Find out more about Geoffrey's work HERE.
Rachael Wisby
Rachael is a physical artist who lives and works in Naarm on the stolen lands of the Wurrundjeri people. Rachael graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2018. She has enjoyed learning from and
dancing with Lee Serle, Jo Lloyd, Phillip Adams, Geoffrey Watson, Walter Dunderville and Natalie Abbott. Rachael is a student of the body and studies Traditional Chinese Medicine. Rachael’s artistic practice articulates a desire for physical action that undermines the body-mind dichotomy. She makes performance-based, body-derived work that manifests as self-generating choreographic systems. She is most concerned with the fabricated, the fantasized and the fictitious body.
Funding Acknowledgements:
This project has been supported by Temperance Hall, The Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, The Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, City of Port Phillip through The Cultural Development Fund
Image credits:
Photography by Chris Boyd and image courtesy of the artist.
Temperance Hall acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land in which we dance and create, the Bunurong Boon Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation, and pay our respect to Elders both past and present and, through them, to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.