Remaking Dubbing

Deanne Butterworth’s Remaking Dubbing offers an exposition of tacit knowledge shared between dancers over space and time. The work, an evolving performance between Butterworth and two others exists within the Glasshouse in two forms; as a pre-recorded and projected documentation of an initial performance within gallery alongside a daily live performance within the same space. In each performance, the dancers have a series of landmarks, poses and movements that must be completed for the performance to conclude, taking each as a cue to propel the work forward. Each day a new version of the work is performed, with the following performance reflecting the remaking of the previous day, to form a lineage of performance building on performance of the same work, parallel to the development of artists work building upon the past works of those who have come before them.

Taking as its starting point documentation from Guy de Cointet’s performance Five Sisters, poses have been lifted to become landmarks throughout the performance between dancers Deanne Butterworth, Daniel Newell and Kara Burdack. Written as a score, with cues for movements, a dialogue between dancer’s bodies evolves, a unique iteration unfolding with each performance. Each new performance embodies the memories of those before it, bringing new life to the ghosts of performances, rehearsals and artists past.

The work, developed throughout her residency, has been deeply influenced by the spaces in which she and her fellow dancers have worked. The exact dimensions of her residential studio space has been taped out in the Glasshouse, formally transposing one space into the other, expressing centrality of the location to the work.

Remaking Dubbing pays homage to the subtle shifts that occur with the reforming of plans, the reinterpretation of scores and the configuration of those who are a part of it. It acknowledges the beauty in the nuance of each reiteration, person, history, body, history, space of live performance and its documentation.

Alex Hall, May 2018

Remaking Dubbing (2018) is a work for three dancers working with the premise of re-enacting a yet unmade work, so in the process of re-enacting it the actual work is created. It plays with seen and unseen scenarios, a doubling of bodies, and performers who work with one another as well as with invisible forces. It uses movement, sound, recorded image, light, and codes. The action is situated in a room with three people, housing their circulating energies, thoughts, insecurities, and memories. The bodies mostly appear to look outward, apparently disconnected from one another, sometimes bored with themselves, ascending and descending, becoming for a moment monumental, as they search for something greater than what is physically closest to them.

Performed by Kara Burdack, Daniel Newell, Deanne Butterworth.

Video: James Wright

Sound: Michael Munson

Light: Rose Connors Dance

EXHIBITION AND PERFORMANCES

31 May to 30 June 2018 at Gertrude Glasshouse

1 to 5 August 2018 at Melbourne Art Fair

April 2019 Alexandra Club, Melbourne 

1 March-1 April for REALREEL at The Substation for FRAME: A biennial of dance (film only)

CREDITS

Created with the support of Creative Victoria, Gertrude Contemporary, and Arts House through the Four Walls initiative. Photo credit: Gregory Lorenzutti

link to video