Jack Ferver is our 2017 International Artist in Residence. Every year we host an international queer artist at Temperance Hall. We support Melbourne and Australian premieres of new work. The on-site residency includes a generous artist fee, studio time, and accommodation. The Artist in Residence presents their work at Temperance Hall, as well as a public professional workshop. The program is by invitation only. 

Temperance Hall presents the Australian premiere of Jack Ferver’s acclaimed work Mon, Ma, Mes, (Revisité). Examining the permeability between the real and the fictive, this stylized lecture-performance has been built to grow alongside Ferver’s concerns as a humorous and disarming retrospective of his life and work. Jack Ferver’s genre-defying performances have been described as “so extreme that they sometimes look and feel like exorcisms” (The New Yorker). Ferver’s “darkly humorous” (The New York Times) works interrogate and indict an array of psychological and socio-political issues, particularly in the realms of sexual orientation, gender, and power struggles. Jack Ferver is a highly sought after figure in the New York performance and theatre scene. He specialises in prickly, playful queer dance theatre.

Jack Ferver will also teach a Performance Composition Workshop at Temperance Hall for participants to develop original movement and text based performance, using a series of exercises to deepen self-expression. Beginning with stretch and placement techniques and core work to develop a neutral and ready body, followed by a sequence of impulse-based improvisation techniques, the workshop enables students to find authentic movement and push past their physical limitations. These improvisations lead into original phrase work, training students to develop their own unique choreographic and performance styles. The group then focuses on writing composition and then individual guidance and dramaturgical assignments, leading to the development and performance of an original text and movement score. 

Ferver’s works have been presented in New York City at the New Museum; The Kitchen; The French Institute Alliance Française, as part of Crossing the Line; Abrons Arts Center; Gibney Dance; Performance Space 122; the Museum of Arts and Design, as part of Performa 11; Danspace Project; and Dixon Place.

Top images courtesy: Gregory Lorenzutti. Bottom images courtesy: Jack Ferver.

PREMIERE

April 28 - May 7, 2017, 8pm

Temperance Hall, 199 Napier St, South Melbourne 3205