In So Many Words

FEB 2021. This project is a collaborative music video, created in response to the experience of Covid19. The project was commissioned by the City of Ballarat’s Creative Ballarat initiative. During 2020, they set up a Covid hotline to enable people to call and express their feelings. Sound from these calls was then woven into music by composer Rae Howell and supported by emerging composer Brannoc Whetter. The music composition inspired the creation of the dance and video elements, by videographer Mitch Nivalis and choreographer Alison Shirley.

This video launched as Victoria experienced a 5-day snap lockdown in 2021. We hope that this creative response resonates with you. And our best wishes to all those folk who are still really feeling it.

Beauty In Decay

NOV 2020. This project was part of my creative project for Honours Fine Arts, Dance, 2020 at VCA.

It is the result of a year of study in choreography - in isolation and separation, thanks to Covid19. The movement restriction and captivity are evident in the setting and the fragility of life and organisms comes into play in this short dance film. My macro photography has filtered through as a way of looking and plays a significant role in this film.

Archival

This short dance film was another of the creative works made for my Honours in Fine Art, Dance at VCA in 2020. This piece investigates themes of memory, ancestry and place and how we hold our stories and histories in our bodies. The landscape too holds its stories and can have a powerful impact on us as other living organisms interacting with those histories. This film was shot near my home during a small gap between Covid lockdowns, in a heavily restricted year for Victorians. This served to heighten the sensations of being in the landscape and free to move, conjuring up memories of childhood freedoms and adventures in the natural surroundings.

Captain Moonlite Rides Again

Our ghosts are with us everywhere we go, our ancestors and the stories that are our making. In this queer history, we are bound, although our stories and outcomes may be vastly different. We honour our predecessors as vital to our freedoms. I step into the outdoors to recall the Moonlite part of me - and to recall my history and longings, all held in my body and in the places I inhabit. I let them breathe and speak silently through my movement.

This work was commissioned by CAFS Ballarat in support of the local and surrounding LGTIQ community. Referencing a local queer bushranger of the 1800s, multiple visual artists contributed to this outdoor projection. Captain Moonlite represents our conflicting needs to hide and to express who we are.