After three years of planning with the local independent dance community and arts organisations, the long-awaited Frame: A biennial of dance is back in the picture. The new festival of dance aims to string together audiences, makers and presenters who will all present a suite of dance offerings that will confront, evoke and uplift.
The inaugural program will run for the whole month of March and will feature works from Arts House, Bunjil Place, Chunky Move, Darebin Arts Speakeasy, the Australian Ballet and more. Frame is an invitation to connect and celebrate the art of dance and movement.
“It’s been a privilege to work alongside one another to co-design and co-create a festival that champions artists and invites audiences to explore and delight in dance. The inaugural Frame will offer a considered and enthralling dance program of unprecedented scale and depth,” says the Frame co-creators and partners.
The Arts House program features five transgenerational and vivid works by rising stars and eminent elders who expand the notions of relation, intimacy, identity, spirituality and vulnerability.
Running between March 1-4, 2023, Two by Australian choreographer Raghav Handa will explore the intimate bromance between a dancer and a tabla musician playing Indian percussive instruments. MOHINI by Raina Peterson will also run during this period. The dancer-choreographer of Fiji-Indian and English heritage's work will be a feast for the senses with lasers that re-vision the myth of Mohini, the avatar of Vishnu.
Running between March 15-18, 2023, The Honouring by Jackie Sheppard is a solo physical theatre story about death, trauma and grief using movement, dialogue and puppetry to explore the transition a spirit takes after suicide, paying homage to their souls.
Exposed by Restless Dance Theatre will take place March 22-25 and will collaboratively devise works that are inclusive and informed by disability presented by an ensemble of D/deaf and disabled artists and allies. It will be a deep delve into vulnerability, uncertainty and risk through graceful movement, installation and sonic meditation.
The last work running between March 29-April 1 will be Somewhere at the beginning by Germaine Acogny. The 79-year-old Senegalese-French dancer will trace the friction between tradition and emancipation by revisiting her exile to Europe and return to West Africa in this acclaimed autobiographical solo.
Find out more about FRAME's 2023 program and the performances, workshops, and conversations being held in Melbourne and surrounds on the Frame website.
Tickets range from $10-35, and you can book tickets on the Arts House website.
