The Archive is a site-responsive dance theatre work set within the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) exploring the body and architecture as an archive. With a quirky and eclectic history, the NFSA building becomes both setting and subject to explore experiential performance. Unfolding in unexpected spaces, courtyards, theatres and underground rooms, we build a journey of discovery and reflection for audiences.
Focusing on research and response, we undertake creative making/experimentation, distilling themes and possible structures for the work. Drawing from archival materials within the exhibitions The Archive invites us to find joy and intrigue in Australia’s cultural memory.
What is an archive? the institution? the practice? the storage vaults? our lived experience?
Notion of the building of the NFSA (or place/nature/architecture) as an archive?
Notion of the body as an archive?
What stories do these archives hold?
What is selected and discarded in the archival process?
What do we let go of?
Details
Consultations with the NFSA’s CEO, Patrick Macintyre and Chief Curator, Megan Loader will inform the concepts, provide important insight into the building history, archival process and notions of collective Australian storytelling.
Artists
Directors: Alison Plevey, and Sara Black
Performers: Billy Keohavong, Pat Hayes Cavanagh, Gabriel Sinclair, Jason Pearce, Mia Rashid, Jahna Lugnan and Christopher Samuel Carroll
Live Cellist: Alex Voorhoeve
Composer: Sia Ahmad
Costume: KellinDonovan
First Nations Consultant: Emma Laverty
Accessibility Consultant: Liz Lea
