Cutting Edge Double Bill Contemporary featuring visiting Spanish Choreographer Carmelo Segura
Plus Live Pianists on Grand Pianos!
A new work from a choreographer at the cutting edge of contemporary dance in Spain, and dancers sharing the stage with two grand pianos, are just two of the pleasures promised in LINK Dance Company’s upcoming May season – Twin Share.
LINK Dance Company is the graduate dance company, unique in Australia, based at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) at Edith Cowan University.
Twin Share features Skinless by visiting choreographer Carmelo Segura and a new work inspired by collaborating choreographers, Sue Peacock and Michael Whaites.
Carmelo Segura trained as a dancer in London before spending six years with the Royal Opera Ballet at Covent Garden. He set up his own company in London in 2007 to develop a unique expression on stage that combines contemporary dance with different art forms. Now based in Madrid, his company has toured Europe, the UK and South America, while Segura has worked as a choreographer in the UK, the US and Brazil.
His new work, choreographed on WAAPA’s graduate dance company, explores the concept of ‘being skinless’ in all its myriad meanings, from exposing feelings that lie under the surface to exploring truthful reactions. This is virtuosity, force, technique and precision wrapped in a thoughtful, sensitive dance piece.
“The skin is like our shell, it’s what people see first,” says Segura, whose visit to WAAPA marks his first commission in Australia. “It is vulnerable and it offers protection. It’s a wall to the outside world and covers our bodies and houses us. It’s a living, breathing organism that is unique to us and it’s our first point of contact with the world.”
At WAAPA with Segura are two of his company dancers, Luis Largo and David Vilarino, who will perform Segura’s most recent work, Osaka. Osaka is based on the legend of the red thread, a story that finds within life’s labyrinth a predesigned and perfect path, a ‘scarlet string’ that connects us to our irrevocable destiny.
Acting Head of Dance, and Perth dance icon, Sue Peacock has joined forces with LINK Artistic Director Michael Whaites to collaborate on a new dance work inspired by Dutch composer Simeon Ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato. Described as meditative and minimal in style, this 1976 composition will be played live on two drawing-room grand pianos by WAAPA Dance Department’s music repetiteur, Gennaro Di Donna and visiting Italian pianist Ciro Barbato.