I acknowledge all First Peoples of this land and their enduring connection to Country. Theirs is a relationship that stretches deeper and further back in time than any connection to the Australian landscape I can personally experience or reference in my research and art.

The dance practices, still images, and footage presented throughout Inhabitance were developed along the coast of Gadabanud Country of the Gunditjmara people, the mountains of the Gunaikurnai people, the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin Nation.

Inhabitance

Films: Inhabitance I-V

About

Is it possible for a place to inhabit us, to imprint itself on our bodies and minds, to call to us, and to shape us, even if we are strangers to it? How does it resonate so deeply, draw us into its rhythms, and feel familiar, creating a connection beyond our own history?

This was the guiding thought for Inhabitance during its initial iteration as the creative outcome of my BFA (Honours) research in 2021. My research sought to examine how landscape 'lives' in the body, how familiar places linger in the psyche, how unknown places beckon us, how the environment becomes choreographer, and how place becomes part of identity.

Through collaborative research with a team of wonderful dancers, I developed two site-conditioned movement practices: HikeDance and MemoryDance.

HikeDance became the process behind the Inhabitance I-V dancefilms
MemoryDance became the engine for the live performance of Inhabitance VI at Out of Bounds (2022, facilitated by Lucy Guerin Inc. & Temperance Hall)

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Inhabitance now takes the form of an ongoing, evolving project that has the capacity to continue for as long as it feeds into conversations and thoughtfulness regarding our treatment of and entanglement in the natural world.

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"An antidote to the chaos of life."

- Audience Member, Out of Bounds, Lucy Guerin Inc. 2022

Inhabitance (n)

According to the Oxford English Dictionary 'inhabitance' is an archaic word defined as "a habitation, abode, dwelling." This work is not about dancers presiding over the landscape, but rather a contemplation on their presence in such places; a noticing of sensorial stimuli received. In some ways, through this attention, the places inhabit the dancers.