Program
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Δ (Change from Aotearoa): Archipelago
Presented by Dancehouse
“Δ: Archipelago” bridges the islands of Te moana nui a Kiwa (the Great Sea of Kiwa / the Pacific Ocean) and so-called ‘Australia’ in real-time with Chunky Move’s 2023 Choreolab participants thumping it out at Dancehouse. We unite digitally with the party at Basement Theatre in Tāmaki Makaurau in a global live-streamed nightclub curated by our guests from Aotearoa as part of FRAME. It is a celebration and reclamation of our bodies, empowered by the lived experience of street-born dances. CONJAH (Jahra Wasasala/Ooshcon) and Jaycee Iman guide audiences, artists, and communities as we untangle the relationship between the contemporary dance canon and street-born forms from Black, Brown and Queer people.
Curatorial note:
Three years into this decade and we are continuing to swim in chaos. Resilient and triumphant, members of our communities have connected virtually and finally in person focusing on our needs for cultural safety on and off the dance floor.
This week has affirmed the parallels from our communities here in Naarm and Tāmaki Makaurau. We are swimming together in these seas of turbulence and learning to surf our emotions and systemic injustice. Our practices break from Western narratives of choreography, empowering a diverse ecology of aesthetics, taste-making, and world-building. As community leaders here in Naarm, the two of us see the centrality shifting. This centrality of what is contemporary in a dance canon in both of our countries has been largely colonial and homogenous in its tastes and preferences.
Creating through games, choosing family portraits, and negotiating cyphers in real time has shown our fellow participants and us that we create time travel. When immersed in the beat, our characters, the Gods of our dreams can come to the forefront. Dr Thomas Defrantz who spoke to us as part of this program said street dance could create an alchemy of time travel; we all felt it.
Thank you to CONJAH & Jaycee Iman for their generosity, the Australia Council of the Arts – International Engagement, Chunky Move, Dancehouse, Basement Theatre and Carriageworks for their insurmountable support in this project.
Love and Respect, Ef & Jonni
Credits
Directors: CONJAH (Jahra Wasasala & Ooshcon) and Jaycee Iman
Performers:Chunky Move Choreolab participants
Live accompanists (Dancehouse): Pataphysics and Lay the Mystic
Live spoken word (Basement Theatre): Mano
DJs (Basement Theatre): Zeke, Blush and Spewer
Curators: Jonathan Homsey and Efren Pamilacan
World builders: Alec Katsourakis, Amelia Jean O’Leary, Carolyn Ooi, Dan Jerinel Bay, David Prakash, Efren Pamilacan, Gabriela Quinsacara, Gabrielle Fallon, Giuliano Hammal, Harrison Hall, India Thomas, Kianna Dévine Orrici, Jada Narkle, Jareen Wee, Jasmin Luna, Jennifer Ma, Jonathan ‘Jonni’ Homsey, Joshua Lynch, Julai Dévine, Karlia Cook, Lana Ye Wang, MaggZ , Marcus Tan, Max Burgess, Naddie Dévine, Nicole Sanders, Nikko ‘Deloy’ de Jesus, Quan Tran, Rachel Lee, Samakshi Sidhu, Sami Smith, Samuel Beazley and Susana Le
Powa Wave by Hannah Bronte on loan courtesy from the artist in the Skylab
Image credits: Jahra Wasasala and Ooschon (2023). Photo by Holly Burgess. Jaycee Iman (2023). Photo by Apela Bell.
View Artist Biographies
Efren Pamilacan is a dance maker and independent producer of Filipino descent living on the unceded lands of the Kulin nations. His work crosses cultural and social spheres, intersecting with hip-hop culture, underground dance forms and the contemporary arts sector. Efren aims to create space for new dance communities to thrive. He is a member of Jigsaw Sneakers, director of “9DIMES”, founder of City Sessions and Co-founder of Cypher Culture and is currently working with Lay the Mystic, Saluhan collective, and House of Dévine. Efren holds a Master of Arts (Art in Public Space) and is currently assisting with the integration of Street Dance forms to VCA Dance.
Jahra (Arieta) Wasasala is a Fijian/Pakeha world-builder, movement psychopomp and writer of realms. Within Viti, they hail from the provinces of Macuata and Ba. Jahra is based in the relational space between a world ending and another world beginning. They centre dance as the chosen tool of transmutation, living-memory, and embodiment, whilst expanding that living work into sound, adornment, poetry, sculpture, and digital realms through their collaborations that have travelled internationally. Jahra gives gratitude to Tāmaki Makaurau (raised) and Te Awa Kairangi-ki-Uta (current) and their multiple iwi, and to the influence that relationship to place undoubtedly has on every artist’s work. Jahra affectionately sees their work as “Oceanic Terror-fi”, and constantly moves towards being spirit-led and blood-led in their evolving creative offering.
Jaycee Tanuvasa, AKA Jaycee Iman, is a prominent voice within the rainbow community as a Transgender and Pacific advocate and community leader. She has navigated her activism through various avenues such as Auckland Pride Board (2017), Village collective, Fine Fatale and Me Family Services Transitioning Together programme. She is a multifaceted artist, curator, producer, and performer, gathering Queer bodies to perform to sold out audiences. With years of experience in voluntary and self-funded initiatives and projects, Jaycee’s leadership as Founding Mother of House of Iman has made a positive impact on our wider pacific, LGBTQIA+ communities both in Aotearoa and Australia.
Jonathan Homsey is a choreographer and curator working from the position of a Queer Person of Colour based in Wurundjeri country. Originally an award-winning dancer for crews during the naughties in Southern California. He is humbled to have been a community leader in so-called Australia for the past decade galvanising people to dance. From Footscray Community Arts to Melbourne Museum, Jonathan specialises in platforming Street and Queer dance forms to cultivate empowerment for gender and ethnically diverse young people. He is a recent Green Room award winner for “I Am Maggie,” a commission with Melbourne Fringe Festival and Arts Centre Melbourne.
Ooshcon is an experimental Hip Hop movement artist of Samoan and Palagi origin. Ooshcon is an award-winning Hip Hop theatre choreographer, a respected Hip Hop and open-style battler, and a sought-after performer with extensive skills in a range of Street Dance styles. Ooshcon has choreographed and performed internationally, recently performing his solo work “Glitch” at the Grand Théâtre at the Maison de la Culture de Tahiti. Beyond the stage, Ooshcon is a mentor and facilitator of creative programmes for young people, focussing on empowering youth to find their voices through the intersection of movement and talanoa/conversation.
Partners
“Δ: Archipelago” is an outcome of Chunky Move’s Choreolab and is presented by Dancehouse with support from the Australia Council of the Arts. The “Change from Aotearoa (Δ)” project is supported by Australia Council of the Arts, Chunky Move, Dancehouse and Basement Theatre.