BRUNO ISAKOVIĆ (CROATIA) 2018

Expanding the depth of interdisciplinary performance and dance in Australia, Phillip Adams BalletLab hosts one international Artist In Residence annually. Designed as a live-in residency for an international artist, the Artist in Residence also presents publicly accessible accompanying workshops or professional classes, as well as a premier season of their work in Melbourne at Temperance Hall. The residency includes a generous artist fee, studio time, and accommodation. The program is by invitation only. 

Servicing our vision to host internationally renowned queer artists each year at Temperance Hall and in conjunction with Midsumma, Australia’s leading queer arts festival, PABL hosted Bruno Isaković for the Melbourne premiere of Denuded and a 3-day public workshop program at Temperance Hall.

Denuded is about breathing, the body and most importantly, constant contact with the audience. The confrontation of the naked body and the gaze is the work's driving force. Isaković examines the physicality of this subject, separate from the source of its meaning, in a solo transformation ritual. Here, the visible becomes a site for investigating the invisible through the transformation of physicality guided by breath. 'Denuded' denotes anything not fitting our framework of rationality and opens up spaces to be filled with the irrationality we all carry within us.

Denuded Workshop is a three-day workshop. Participants immerse themselves in deep study of their breath, physical tension and its effect to body alignment. The interconnected structure of breath and body tension/release permeates the body in each moment. 

Bruno Isaković is a performer, choreographer and teacher living in Zagreb, Croatia. He graduated with a degree in contemporary dance from Amsterdam School of the Arts in 2009. From 2011 - 2015 he was a member of Contemporary Dance Studio, a company based in Zagreb. He is Artistic Director of Sounded Bodies Festival happening annually in the autumn season in Zagreb, Croatia. While working with different choreographers, Isaković creates his own performances and teaches dance workshops. He has received various scholarships, as well as Jury Award and Best Solo Dance at Solo Dance International Festival in Budapest and Croatian National Award 2016 as a best choreographer for 'Denuded' (ensemble version). His solo 'Denuded' (2013) has been performed across five different continents in venues in New York, Tokyo, London, Sao Paulo and Hobart. This led him to create an ensemble version of the work.

Images courtesy: Bruno Isaković.