Melbourne Fringe Festival 2018
Winner – Spirit of Fringe Award, Melbourne Fringe Festival 2018
Inspired by club scenes in San Francisco, Mexico, Cuba and Berlin, SPIN is a participatory dance performance event and immersive experience with a DJ and Deaf Hosts. It celebrates the physical and social experience of dance parties, subcultures and rituals that bring us together.
SPIN offers a pleasurable and immersive experience, combining visual and tactile elements of DJ music, sound vibration design from Russell Goldsmith, visual projections from Rhian Hinkley, dynamic dance performance and collective, ritualised movement.
Traditionally, the dance club is seen as a space where Deaf people do not take part in. SPIN interrogates this. SPIN is about reclaiming the dance club and the dance party as accessible, inclusive and safe spaces. SPIN shares and celebrates Deaf culture, identity and belonging. SPIN is a playful disruption of what we think we understand the dance club to be and is essentially a dance performance party that is led by Deaf hosts. SPIN seeks to dissolve the existing physical, cultural and communication barriers and to experience the joys of moving together.
SPIN was created by Deaf contemporary dancer Anna Seymour in collaboration with engagement specialist Bec Reid, DJ Callum Padgham, Deaf Hosts Luke King and Robbie Burrows and dancers Amanda Lever, Jon Clarke and Benjamin Hoopmann.
SPIN was made possible with the support of a Darebin Arts Speakeasy YOUR PLATFORM grant, an Auslan Services grant and Pozible supporters.
Choreographer notes – Anna Seymour
SPIN is inspired by my experiences in the US, Mexico, Cuba and Berlin in 2017 when I was doing a dance residency in New York and then in Berlin. In between, I performed at the International Deaf Dance Festival in San Francisco, attended Burning Man, and went travelling in Mexico and Cuba. An experience that had a huge impact on me was the closing party of the Deaf Dance Festival. The DJ was Deaf. The dance floor was packed full of Deaf people. I will never forget the exhilaration of dancing in a group that was held and led by Deaf people. That particular experience inspired me to re-create an experience for audiences in Melbourne and Australia. I observed social dancing in clubs and public spaces in Mexico, Cuba and Berlin.
These experiences changed my perspectives of dance clubs, dance parties, and it got me thinking about social anxiety. How people seek escape and connection with others or ourselves in dance clubs and parties.
It got me thinking about subcultures and the role and presence of Deaf community and culture in those worlds. I wondered what it would be like if I could create a dance performance event with Deaf Hosts.
I also have always been fascinated with DJs. I love watching them and how they move. I am intrigued with the power of collective movement in clubs, parties and in everyday life. I love observing and being part of human flocking sequences.
My desire is for SPIN to blur boundaries between performers and audiences, shift perspectives about Deaf people and dance and music, to engage more with community and people and break down physical and communication barriers between people.
Director/Choreographer/Producer/Performer Anna Seymour
Choreography Consultant/Producer Bec Reid
Deaf Hosts Anna Seymour, Luke King & Robbie Burrows
Dance Performers Anna Seymour, Amanda Lever, Benjamin Hoopmann & Jon Clarke
DJ Callum Padgham
Sound Designer Russell Goldsmith
Light Designer Bronwyn Pringle
Production Design Rhian Hinkley
PhotographyKate Disher-Quill
Video Jessica Barclay-Lawton
People who are normally too shy to dance in the normal parties: men who might think it is unmanly behaviour, older people who might think that it is only for the young – they all lost their inhibitions, were all dancing and enjoying the freedom of movement and personal expression.
Bohemian Rhapsody
There is vulnerability in dancing, but joy too: and joy overtakes us.
Audience feedback
SPIN PRESENTER AND TOURING PACKAGE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.