PIECES 2024
UMAC acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the unceded land on which we work. We pay respect to their Elders past and present, and their enduring traditions of knowledge sharing, performing and storytelling on this land.
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Featuring works by Joel Bray, Tra Mi Dinh and Alisdair Macindoe
Union Theatre , Arts and Cultural Building
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When
7pm, Thu 28 Nov - Opening Night
7pm, Fri 29 Nov - with Post-Show Q&A (Auslan Interpreted)
2pm, Sat 30 Nov - Audio Described Performance
7pm, Sat 30 Nov
Where
Union Theatre
Arts and Cultural Building
The University of Melbourne
159 Monash Road, Parkville VIC 3010
Witness the future of dance in a thrilling triple bill of innovative contemporary works.
Lucy Guerin Inc's long-running commissioning program takes to its biggest stage yet in a major new collaboration with UMAC.
Showcasing exceptional artists at the forefront of dance in Narrm, PIECES 2024 sees leading choreographers Joel Bray, Tra Mi Dinh, and Alisdair Macindoe unveil 20-minute performances commissioned by LGI and UMAC.
Playing for a strictly limited season, don’t miss three world premieres signalling a new era of contemporary dance.
Swallow by Joel Bray
Come, sweet creature.
Perch on the small of my back.
Cock your head my way and shoot me an Ancestor’s piercing glance.
I yield into leafy linens as you softly warble in my ear:
“Do you Swallow?”
Creative Team
Choreographer and Performer: Joel Bray
Composer and Performer: Marco Cher-Gibard
Lighting Designer: Rachel Lee
Big thanks to Marco. Marco made the awesome soundtrack to my last work Homo Pentecostus. He was one of my very first Naarm friends when we were baby artists together on a project way back when. It’s such a joy to share the stage with this talented musician and human. Thank you to Letitia Harris, my Wiradjuri sister who once said to me “Look around. Your totem will reveal himself to you”. Thank you to my Father and my other Wiradjuri Elders for their cherishing oversight. Thanks to Ben Hurley. Thank you to Veronica Bolzon, my indefatigable Creative Producer, and to my long-suffering boyfriend Dr Christopher Cheers (the PhD is fresh so everyone must call him “Dr”). Thanks to Lucy and the whole LGI team, you rock!
Seven dances for two people by Tra Mi Dinh
A duet led by the desire to embody lucky number seven; two dancers explore the world of this auspicious number.
Creative Team
Choreographer: Tra Mi Dinh
Dancers: Tra Mi Dinh, Rachel Coulson
Composer: Tilman Robinson
Lighting Designer: Rachel Lee
Costume Designer: Geoffrey Watson
Thank you to Lucy, for inviting me to create this work and deepen my practice; to Rachel C for being a primo dancer/collaborator; to Tilman, for his care in crafting the sound of this world (and for being the perfect sounding board); to Rachel L for lighting us, to Geoffery for dressing us; to the staff at LGI and UMAC for bringing it all to life; and my deepest thanks to my parents and sister for their unwavering encouragement and support.
“OK, bye!” by Alisdair Macindoe
“OK, bye!” marks Alisdair Macindoe's latest collaboration with his mother, xanya mamunya, whose harp playing is attributed to the reason he is in dance. A musical and choreographic reflection on ultimate departures, “OK, bye!” explores the cognitive dissonance brought on by feelings of infinity in a world bound by finite limitations.
Creative Team
Choreographer: Alisdair Macindoe, in collaboration with the dancers
Sound Designer, Instrument Designer, and Composer: Alisdair Macindoe
Harpist (Recorded) and Composer: xanya mamunya
Dancers: Geoffrey Watson, Rachel Coulson
Lighting Designer: Rachel Lee
This work is dedicated to xanya mamunya. Thanks to Chris Chua, Julie Macindoe, Jayden Wall, Melissa Pham, Misha Doe, Estelle Conley, Rosie Fisher, and Lucy Guerin.
Production Credits
Curator: Lucy Guerin
Production Manager: Genevieve Cizevskis
Stage Manager: Zsuzsa Gaynor Mihaly
Lighting Operator: Sarah Cleverley
Audio Operator: Gabriel Bethune
Producer, LGI: Estelle Conley
Executive Producer, LGI: Ally Harvey
Producer, UMAC: Rosie Fisher
PIECES would not have been possible without the support of The Eirene Lucas Foundation and WXYZ Studios.
Tickets
Full Price
$35
Concession
$28
First Nations audiences
$15
University of Melbourne Students
$15
Humanitix booking fees apply
Running Time
Approx. 60 minutes with no interval. Latecomers may not be admitted until a suitable break in the performance.
Event Information
PIECES is suitable for mature audiences, recommended for ages 15+. This presentation contains full frontal nudity, sexual references, adult themes, loud noises and use of theatrical haze and strobe effects.
Audio Described Performance
Saturday 30 November, 2pm
Audio description is the narration of visual aspects of live theatre performances that enhances the accessibility of for people who blind or have low vision. If you wish to use this service, please include a note in the 'Accessibility requirements' section of your booking or contact [email protected].
Meet & Assist Service
Saturday 30 November, 1.30pm
A Vitae Veritas Guide will be situated at the accessible drop off spot on Monash Road and near Tram Stop #1 on Swanston Street to meet and assist audience arriving for the audio described performance. To request this service and be provided the details of the guide on the day, or to make an enquiry, please email [email protected].
Accessibility
-
Accessible toilets available
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Infared Hearing Assist System
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Wheelchair Accessible
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The post-show Q&A at 7pm on Friday 29 Nov will be Auslan interpreted.
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Audio Described performance: 2pm, 30 Nov
LGI is supported by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body; by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria; and by the City of Melbourne.
Cast & Creatives
Joel Bray
Choreographer
A Naarm-based performer and maker, Joel Bray is a proud Wiradjuri man and Artistic Director of Joel Bray Dance. Joel danced in Europe with Kolben Dance, FRESCO Dance Company, Roy Assaf and Niv Sheinfeld & Oren Laor, and in Australia with Chunky Move.
Joel’s dance-theatre encounters in unorthodox spaces spring from his Wiradjuri heritage, and use humour to engage audiences in rituals about sex, history, trauma and healing. His experimental work challenges white audience expectations of Aboriginal performance and blurs the colonial genres.
His works Biladurang (2017), Dharawungara (Chunky Move, 2018), Daddy (Yirramboi Festival 2019), Considerable Sexual License (Yirramboi 2021), I Liked It, BUT (2021), Garabari (Artshouse 2022) and Homo Pentecostus (Malthouse 2024) have toured to the Brisbane, Sydney, Darwin, Midsumma, Auckland, LiveWorks, World Pride and Dance Massive Festivals, and to PICA, the Arts Centre Melbourne and Canberra Theatre Centre. Joel’s seven-channel video installation called Giraru Galing Ganhagirri (The Wind Will Bring the Rain) was presented at the National Gallery of Australia, and Storage Unit (2023) was commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria.
Joel was the 2019 National Library of Australia Creative Arts Fellow, a 2020 Sydney Dance Company New Breed choreographer and the 2021-22 Chunky Move Choreographer-in-Residence, and a member of the Melbourne Fringe Board.
Tra Mi Dinh
Choreographer
Tra Mi Dinh is an award-winning choreographer and dancer working across Naarm/Melbourne and Gadigal/Sydney. Her choreographic work is built upon an unrelenting fascination with time; harnessing the dancing body to magnify and disrupt linearity and expectation. Tra Mi is invested in movement that is virtuosic, precise, absurd, embodied, surprising, energetic, and rhythmic.
In 2022, Tra Mi won the Keir Choreographic Award, for her duet The. Other choreographic works include HOLDING (2021), And, again (2022), (UP)HOLDING (2023), Not the Piece (2023) and Somewhere between ten and fourteen (Commission by Sydney Dance Company, 2023). Her choreographic practice has been supported through residencies with Bundanon, Australian Dance Theatre, Critical Path, Lucy Guerin Inc, DirtyFeet, Tasdance, Sydney Fringe, Ausdance NSW. Tra Mi is an Artist in Residence at The Substation for 2024/2025.
Tra Mi has danced for Lucy Guerin Inc in multiple major works; Make Your Own World (2019), The Clock: Timepiece (2019), Pendulum (2021/22/23), Flux Job (2021), and NEWRETRO (2023). Recently she stepped into Guerin’s iconic duet work Split (2017) performing at Seoul International Dance Festival (2023). In 2023 she joined the cast of Stephanie Lake’s Manifesto (2021), performing in recent shows in Melbourne, Auckland, Madrid, and Châlons-en-Champagne. Tra Mi has danced for many celebrated artists and companies including Chunky Move, Joel Bray Dance, Michelle Heaven, Victoria Chiu, Dance Makers Collective and more.
Tra Mi graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) from Victorian College of the Arts in 2014.
Alisdair Macindoe
Choreographer
Alisdair Macindoe is an independent multidisciplinary choreographer living on unceded stolen Woi Wurrung country (Melbourne, Australia). With an interest in extending the boundaries of choreographic practice, Alisdair’s work spans dance, sound, electronics, coding and text. Recent works have seen him explore automated dance and Artificial Intelligence; new technology for music expression; trans-humanism; waste and climate change; and identity in the age of narcissism.
Alisdair’s independent and collaborative work has been commissioned and presented widely, including DULL BOY (2024, Part of Three, Australasian Dance Collective, Ohm Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse); FORGERY (2021, Australasian Dance Collective & Brisbane Festival); PROGRESS REPORT (2023 & 2021, with co-director Alison Currie for Vitalstatistix & Frame Biennial @ The Substation ); SYSTEM ERROR (2021, co-created with Chamber Made & Tamara Saulwick for Arts House); REFERENCE MATERIAL (2021, Darebin Speakeasy); NONCOMPETE (2018, The Substation); MEETING (2015, with co-creator Antony Hamilton, commissioned by Arts House, presented across 35 international seasons) and BROMANCE (2010, Next Wave, Arts House & Performance Space).
Alisdair has received six Greenroom awards; an Australian Helpmann Award and a New York Performing Arts Award ‘Bessie’. He was the 2019 Resident Director for Lucy Guerin Inc; the 2019 Ausdance Peggy Van Praagh Fellow; the 2020 Dancenorth NO-SHOW resident; a 2020-21 Sidney Myer Foundation Creative Fellow and a recipient of the 2022 Chloe Munro Mid-Career Fellowship. He is a current board member of Ausdance Victoria
Witness the future of dance in a thrilling triple bill of innovative contemporary works.
Lucy Guerin Inc's long-running commissioning program takes to its biggest stage yet in a major new collaboration with UMAC.
Showcasing exceptional artists at the forefront of dance in Narrm, PIECES 2024 sees leading choreographers Joel Bray, Tra Mi Dinh, and Alisdair Macindoe unveil 20-minute performances commissioned by LGI and UMAC.
Playing for a strictly limited season, don’t miss three world premieres signalling a new era of contemporary dance.
Swallow by Joel Bray
Come, sweet creature.
Perch on the small of my back.
Cock your head my way and shoot me an Ancestor’s piercing glance.
I yield into leafy linens as you softly warble in my ear:
“Do you Swallow?”
Creative Team
Choreographer and Performer: Joel Bray
Composer and Performer: Marco Cher-Gibard
Lighting Designer: Rachel Lee
Big thanks to Marco. Marco made the awesome soundtrack to my last work Homo Pentecostus. He was one of my very first Naarm friends when we were baby artists together on a project way back when. It’s such a joy to share the stage with this talented musician and human. Thank you to Letitia Harris, my Wiradjuri sister who once said to me “Look around. Your totem will reveal himself to you”. Thank you to my Father and my other Wiradjuri Elders for their cherishing oversight. Thanks to Ben Hurley. Thank you to Veronica Bolzon, my indefatigable Creative Producer, and to my long-suffering boyfriend Dr Christopher Cheers (the PhD is fresh so everyone must call him “Dr”). Thanks to Lucy and the whole LGI team, you rock!
Seven dances for two people by Tra Mi Dinh
A duet led by the desire to embody lucky number seven; two dancers explore the world of this auspicious number.
Creative Team
Choreographer: Tra Mi Dinh
Dancers: Tra Mi Dinh, Rachel Coulson
Composer: Tilman Robinson
Lighting Designer: Rachel Lee
Costume Designer: Geoffrey Watson
Thank you to Lucy, for inviting me to create this work and deepen my practice; to Rachel C for being a primo dancer/collaborator; to Tilman, for his care in crafting the sound of this world (and for being the perfect sounding board); to Rachel L for lighting us, to Geoffery for dressing us; to the staff at LGI and UMAC for bringing it all to life; and my deepest thanks to my parents and sister for their unwavering encouragement and support.
“OK, bye!” by Alisdair Macindoe
“OK, bye!” marks Alisdair Macindoe's latest collaboration with his mother, xanya mamunya, whose harp playing is attributed to the reason he is in dance. A musical and choreographic reflection on ultimate departures, “OK, bye!” explores the cognitive dissonance brought on by feelings of infinity in a world bound by finite limitations.
Creative Team
Choreographer: Alisdair Macindoe, in collaboration with the dancers
Sound Designer, Instrument Designer, and Composer: Alisdair Macindoe
Harpist (Recorded) and Composer: xanya mamunya
Dancers: Geoffrey Watson, Rachel Coulson
Lighting Designer: Rachel Lee
This work is dedicated to xanya mamunya. Thanks to Chris Chua, Julie Macindoe, Jayden Wall, Melissa Pham, Misha Doe, Estelle Conley, Rosie Fisher, and Lucy Guerin.
Production Credits
Curator: Lucy Guerin
Production Manager: Genevieve Cizevskis
Stage Manager: Zsuzsa Gaynor Mihaly
Lighting Operator: Sarah Cleverley
Audio Operator: Gabriel Bethune
Producer, LGI: Estelle Conley
Executive Producer, LGI: Ally Harvey
Producer, UMAC: Rosie Fisher
PIECES would not have been possible without the support of The Eirene Lucas Foundation and WXYZ Studios.
Cast & Creatives
Joel Bray
Choreographer
A Naarm-based performer and maker, Joel Bray is a proud Wiradjuri man and Artistic Director of Joel Bray Dance. Joel danced in Europe with Kolben Dance, FRESCO Dance Company, Roy Assaf and Niv Sheinfeld & Oren Laor, and in Australia with Chunky Move.
Joel’s dance-theatre encounters in unorthodox spaces spring from his Wiradjuri heritage, and use humour to engage audiences in rituals about sex, history, trauma and healing. His experimental work challenges white audience expectations of Aboriginal performance and blurs the colonial genres.
His works Biladurang (2017), Dharawungara (Chunky Move, 2018), Daddy (Yirramboi Festival 2019), Considerable Sexual License (Yirramboi 2021), I Liked It, BUT (2021), Garabari (Artshouse 2022) and Homo Pentecostus (Malthouse 2024) have toured to the Brisbane, Sydney, Darwin, Midsumma, Auckland, LiveWorks, World Pride and Dance Massive Festivals, and to PICA, the Arts Centre Melbourne and Canberra Theatre Centre. Joel’s seven-channel video installation called Giraru Galing Ganhagirri (The Wind Will Bring the Rain) was presented at the National Gallery of Australia, and Storage Unit (2023) was commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria.
Joel was the 2019 National Library of Australia Creative Arts Fellow, a 2020 Sydney Dance Company New Breed choreographer and the 2021-22 Chunky Move Choreographer-in-Residence, and a member of the Melbourne Fringe Board.
Tra Mi Dinh
Choreographer
Tra Mi Dinh is an award-winning choreographer and dancer working across Naarm/Melbourne and Gadigal/Sydney. Her choreographic work is built upon an unrelenting fascination with time; harnessing the dancing body to magnify and disrupt linearity and expectation. Tra Mi is invested in movement that is virtuosic, precise, absurd, embodied, surprising, energetic, and rhythmic.
In 2022, Tra Mi won the Keir Choreographic Award, for her duet The. Other choreographic works include HOLDING (2021), And, again (2022), (UP)HOLDING (2023), Not the Piece (2023) and Somewhere between ten and fourteen (Commission by Sydney Dance Company, 2023). Her choreographic practice has been supported through residencies with Bundanon, Australian Dance Theatre, Critical Path, Lucy Guerin Inc, DirtyFeet, Tasdance, Sydney Fringe, Ausdance NSW. Tra Mi is an Artist in Residence at The Substation for 2024/2025.
Tra Mi has danced for Lucy Guerin Inc in multiple major works; Make Your Own World (2019), The Clock: Timepiece (2019), Pendulum (2021/22/23), Flux Job (2021), and NEWRETRO (2023). Recently she stepped into Guerin’s iconic duet work Split (2017) performing at Seoul International Dance Festival (2023). In 2023 she joined the cast of Stephanie Lake’s Manifesto (2021), performing in recent shows in Melbourne, Auckland, Madrid, and Châlons-en-Champagne. Tra Mi has danced for many celebrated artists and companies including Chunky Move, Joel Bray Dance, Michelle Heaven, Victoria Chiu, Dance Makers Collective and more.
Tra Mi graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) from Victorian College of the Arts in 2014.
Alisdair Macindoe
Choreographer
Alisdair Macindoe is an independent multidisciplinary choreographer living on unceded stolen Woi Wurrung country (Melbourne, Australia). With an interest in extending the boundaries of choreographic practice, Alisdair’s work spans dance, sound, electronics, coding and text. Recent works have seen him explore automated dance and Artificial Intelligence; new technology for music expression; trans-humanism; waste and climate change; and identity in the age of narcissism.
Alisdair’s independent and collaborative work has been commissioned and presented widely, including DULL BOY (2024, Part of Three, Australasian Dance Collective, Ohm Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse); FORGERY (2021, Australasian Dance Collective & Brisbane Festival); PROGRESS REPORT (2023 & 2021, with co-director Alison Currie for Vitalstatistix & Frame Biennial @ The Substation ); SYSTEM ERROR (2021, co-created with Chamber Made & Tamara Saulwick for Arts House); REFERENCE MATERIAL (2021, Darebin Speakeasy); NONCOMPETE (2018, The Substation); MEETING (2015, with co-creator Antony Hamilton, commissioned by Arts House, presented across 35 international seasons) and BROMANCE (2010, Next Wave, Arts House & Performance Space).
Alisdair has received six Greenroom awards; an Australian Helpmann Award and a New York Performing Arts Award ‘Bessie’. He was the 2019 Resident Director for Lucy Guerin Inc; the 2019 Ausdance Peggy Van Praagh Fellow; the 2020 Dancenorth NO-SHOW resident; a 2020-21 Sidney Myer Foundation Creative Fellow and a recipient of the 2022 Chloe Munro Mid-Career Fellowship. He is a current board member of Ausdance Victoria