Rosalind Crisp and Susan Leigh Foster began their twenty year association in Sydney in 1997. In this ragged duet they use their sharp wit and decaying bodies to unravel their dancing histories. “Two Gal(ah)s” is part of an on–going process of collaborative investigation into the body and its histories. Rosalind & Susan extend a warm welcome to audience members to look in on that process as it is evolving.

To celebrate Tanzfabrik’s 40th birthday and the enormous generosity with which Berlin makes a place for international artists, (Un)domesticated Bodies was born. The idea was that Rosalind would make a work with dancers in Berlin who have been practicing her method for many years. Having known and respected Susan Leigh Foster for twenty years, she invited her to be a guest in the work – a further referent in an interconnnected dance history. Quite quickly the project divided into two: Two Gal(ah)s, a duo practice with Susan and Rosalind, and Live feed, a group work with Berlin dancers led by Rosalind.

Of course I hoped Susan would bring some of her exquisite scholarly expertise to bear on my life-long practice in dance. It was an opportunity for both of us. She didn’t wish to be a ‘talking head’ though, but rather to dance with me. This was a daunting and exhilarating prospect. So how might our very different bodies of work co-exist in the studio and in performance – her forty years of writing about dance and performing her lectures, and my thirty years of creating, performing, reflecting and daily dancing?
Rosalind Crisp

Rosalind Crisp is one of Australia’s foremost dance artists. She established the Omeo Dance studio in Sydney in 1996. From 2004 to 2012 her company was based in Paris where she was associate artist of the Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson. In 2015 the French Ministry of Culture awarded her the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres. She is currently an honorary fellow of the University of Melbourne (VCAM).

Her recent performance works arise from the ecological crisis in Australia and deal with processes by which dance might explore, embody, understand and connect to unfolding enviro-colonial devastation. www.omeodance.com

Susan Leigh Foster, dancer, choreographer, scholar, returns to dance after a four-year hiatus, during which time she acquired titanium hips. She is the author, most recently of Choreographing Empathy: Kinesthesia in Performance, and she is currently working on a book on dance and value. Three of her dance lectures can be found at the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage website danceworkbook.pcah.us/susan-foster. As a choreographer she relishes composing dances in the moment of performing them.

[Source: play bill]

TFB Nr. 1072